Daily Times

Different political, legal and social theorists defined justice differently. For Plato, Justice was class division and functional specialization.

Kant defined justice as a virtue through which respect for others’ freedom, autonomy and dignity could be ensured. J.S Mill sought justice in qualitative utilitarianism to foster human liberty. John Rawls analyzed justice in terms of the maximum equal liberty of all members of a society. Notwithstanding differences in philosophical explanations of the concept of justice, it is widely believed by modern political and social theorists that justice denotes equality of citizens, rule of law and equal access to justice.

Access to justice can be defined as “the ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal or informal institutions of justice, in conformity with human rights standards.” Access is important for various reasons like giving justice to the poor and disadvantaged. Access to justice is a fundamental right. Having access to justice means everyone should be able to use the legal system when they need to. In countries where many people are poor and there are big gaps between rich and poor, it’s even more important to have good legal help available.

Legal aid plays a crucial role in society by ensuring that everyone has access to justice, regardless of their financial situation. It helps level the playing field, ensures fair representation, and upholds the principles of equality and the rule of law. Legal aid also promotes social justice, protects individual rights, and prevents injustice and abuse of power. It’s essential for maintaining a fair and equitable legal system and fostering trust in the justice system. The right to legal aid is a basic one under Article 4 (due process) and Article 10-A (right to fair trial) of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The World Justice Project report, 2023, on the Rule of Law Index ranked Pakistan’s criminal justice system as being 99 out of 142 countries. Pakistan ranks poorly on accessibility and affordability, lagging behind most countries, highlighting a critical need to improve access to justice.

Legal aid thus assumes enormous importance in the context of access to justice where deviance and discrimination are deeply rooted in the socio-political milieu.

According to the World Bank, the estimated poverty rate was 37.2 percent in 2023 Pakistan. Legal aid thus assumes enormous importance in the context of access to justice where deviance and discrimination are deeply rooted in the socio-political milieu.

Despite nearly 77 years of independence, Pakistan’s legal aid system remains in a state of crisis. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (1973) explicitly guarantees the right to affordable and efficient justice, free from discrimination, yet the State has failed to effectively implement this fundamental right. The legal aid system continues to struggle, leaving many citizens without access to justice.

In Pakistan, a large section of the population is unable to access the formal legal system mainly for want of financial resources and a general lack of awareness of the law and legal rights.

Although the State recognizes the need and importance of legal aid to ensure access to justice for the needy by incorporating provisions of legal assistance in some laws and rules a lot more needs to be done. A review of the current legal aid system shows that there is no comprehensive and uniform legal framework for legal aid which means that accessing the formal legal system is still an unaffordable luxury for the majority of people in Pakistan.

A comparative analysis of the legal aid systems in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka reveals that, despite facing similar challenges to Pakistan, these countries have successfully established organized structures for legal assistance. For example, Bangladesh has made significant strides in this regard, with the Supreme Court Legal Aid Office being established in 2015 to provide legal aid in both civil and criminal cases.

The National Legal Aid Services Authorities Act, 1987, of India provides for an organized structure of legal aid and services. Likewise, there are state, district and sub-divisional legal aid service authorities on a similar pattern. In Sri Lanka, The Legal Aid Act, of 1978, created the Legal Aid Commission consisting of nine members, three nominated by the justice ministry and six by the Bar Council of Sri Lanka.

Pakistan’s legal aid structures face significant challenges. The District Legal Empowerment Committees (DLECs), established in 2011 by the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) to provide district-level legal aid, suffer from a lack of ownership and support from high courts and district judiciary.

Additionally, effective monitoring, evaluation, and performance management mechanisms are absent. Furthermore, the disbursement rate of legal aid funds under DLECs is alarmingly low, with a substantial portion of allocated funds remaining unutilized across regions – 46 percent in Punjab, 40 percent in Sindh, 55 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 60 percent in Baluchistan, and 52 percent in Islamabad. The lack of transparency is further evident in the absence of updated data on DLECs from all provinces, with information only available up to 2020 on the LJCP website. This opacity extends to the underutilization of funds allocated for DLECs annually, resulting in a disappointingly low rate of legal aid disbursement.

Moreover, DLECs primarily focus on providing legal aid to under-trial prisoners, despite no rule limiting their scope to this category. The Pakistan Bar Council, under the Free Legal Aid Rules 1999, also has the mandate to provide legal aid and create awareness about legal rights. Under these rules, the Pakistan Bar Council manages central, provincial and district-free legal aid committees. However, these committees lack the capacity and support to perform the roles assigned to them.

The Punjab Legal Aid Agency, established in 2019 under the Punjab Legal Aid Act 2018, aims to provide legal assistance to financially disadvantaged individuals, particularly women involved in family disputes. However, the agency has yet to be fully operationalized as intended. In a recent ruling, the full bench of the Lahore High Court directed the Government of Punjab to establish the agency within three months. Despite the court’s order, announced on February 13, 2024, the Government of Punjab has failed to take any action, demonstrating a lack of priority in providing effective legal aid to the public.

The relevant authorities must recognize their responsibility to provide effective legal aid to the masses and promptly implement the directives of the honourable Lahore High Court. To achieve this, the Ministry of Law, Justice & Human Rights must take the lead in engaging not only provincial law ministries and the Pakistan Bar Council but also the superior judiciary and civil society to reform the legal aid system and ensure access to justice for all.

(To be continued)

The writer is a lawyer.