Daily Times

According to a report titled ‘Understanding the Informal Justice System: Opportunities and Possibilities for Legal Pluralism in Pakistan’, 98.2 percent of respondents in a survey opined that the poor and lower-classes do not have access to justice in the formal justice system. One of the reasons for limited access to the formal justice system, as perceived by half the respondents, is the high legal fee charged by lawyers.

However, I believe in a democracy the legal system should be fair and accessible to all. But sadly in Pakistan, we lack to achieve this goal; thousands upon thousands of court cases linger on for years, and many petitioners die without seeing justice. Deprived and marginalised, they can hardly afford legal assistance. Given its constitutional duty to ensure a fair trial, the state must intervene when prisoners cannot navigate complex legal processes without financial aid.

The World Justice Project report, 2016 on the Rule of Law Index ranked Pakistan’s criminal justice system at 81 out of 113 countries, above Bangladesh (97) but below India (71) and clearly way below most of the 113 countries surveyed. In the civil justice system, the same report ranked Pakistan even worse (106/113), below Bangladesh (103), Sri Lanka (96) and India (93).

Hereby the question that comes out of my mind is what does ‘legal aid’ means and from where this concept started? As per my intellectual thought, legal aid is money given by the government for providing support to people who are not in a position to afford or to pay for a lawyer. However, history of the concept of legal aid can be traced back in 1851 in France, where the first-everl aw was introduced to regulate and provide the services of free legal assistance to those reckoned as the weakest of the weak and the poorest of the poor.

For providing free legal aid, in July 2011, the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) under statutory notification SRO 684 (I)/2011 by Ordinance (XIV of 1979) established the District Legal Empowerment Committees (DLECs). These Committees were constituted to administer and manage funds for the provision of legal aid to the deserving litigants. The members of DLECs comprise of: a) Deputy Commissioner/District Coordination Officer, b) District Jail Superintendent, c) President of the District Bar Association, d) a civil society representative and e) District and Sessions Judge (who also chair of the committee).

This DLEC is mandated to take up applications from deserving litigants to provide free legal assistance. Deserving litigants have been defined as those who are otherwise unable to obtain legal aid or assistance for protecting their genuine legal rights or interests on account of their limited financial resources. As per DLEC rules, the committee will hold its meeting at least once in a month to consider applications of the deserving litigants for grant of legal aid for pursuing their cases in the courts. However, it may hold special meetings in view of any such application warranting urgent disposal.

Hereby I am also highlighting for my readers the application submission and processing procedures that are described within this DLEC that the deserving litigants may apply directly to the district and session judge (chairperson of the DLEC committee) on plain paper along with NIC copy or any other document of identity. One of the DLEC members may be assigned to act as a secretary to the committee. The superintendent district jail may also forward applications of the under trial or convicted prisoners or any person confined in jail in relation to civil proceedings after necessary verification that the applicant is a deserving litigant. The committee may also consider cases referred by any Court for the provision of legal aid to the person whose case is pending before such court.

But the issue is that the rate of disbursement of legal aid under the DLECs is quite disappointing; 59 percent of the funds in Punjab, 91 percent in Sindh, 69 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 95 percent in Balochistan allocated to the respective DLECs between 2012 and 2016, unfortunately, remained unspent. The question is why does the available free legal aid go unused? I believe that lack of awareness about free legal aid forums and their procedures lead these mechanisms to be non-productive.

In the context of justice-provision and its easy access in a socio-political milieu where discrimination, poverty and deviance are deep-rooted, the concept of legal aid has gained greater significance

Presently, the concept of legal aid remains alien in courts. Statistics of several reports reveal that approximately 40 percent population of Pakistan lives below the poverty line. Thus, in the context of justice-provision and its easy access in a socio-political milieu where discrimination, poverty and deviance are deep-rooted, the concept of legal aid has gained greater significance. Another survey report divulges that formal justice system of Pakistan has remained a failure in the better dispensation of justice to the economically weaker and poorer segments of society. In the opinion of 98.2 percent respondents, lawyer’s fee has been pointed out by 50 percent respondents as the stumbling block to the accessibility of formal justice system.

Last but not least, I want to request the NGOs to take up this issue and mark legal aid as a priority area. In Sindh, Marvi Rural Development Organization, Legal Rights Forum and many donor organisations are extensively working for providing free legal aid services to the rural communities of Sindh.

I am of the view that mostly the vulnerable and poor are facing difficulties to reach the respective courts due to unavailability of funds and resources and have no approach to advocates for getting their rights properly through the judicial system. With the support of these organisations, they have reached a large number of people through different methods.

Moreover, an efficient legal aid system can significantly help improve vulnerable sections’ access to justice and reduce their legal exclusion. It is crucial to building the trust of millions of poor people with the judicial system and importantly, with the political system of the country.

The writer is a social and political activist based in Lahore. He has done his Masters and MPhil in Communication Studies. He can be reached at salmanali088@gmail.com; tweets @Salmani_salu

Published in Daily Times, May 23^rd 2018.