The Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday announced several historic measures outlining his plans for the nation for the future that he considers necessary to implement as part of his governing objectives. He announced free education up to matriculation in federal government institutions, significant procedural changes to ensure speedy justice and new job opportunities by filling the vacant posts in public sector organisations.
It was his first speech since taking over the office of Prime Minister-ship. It was very much awaited. The most significant part of the speech related to ensuring speedy trials by some procedural changes so that justice is provided to the needy at a relatively cheaper cost than it is being provided today. If the government is determined and is successful in providing speedier justice at a relatively less cost, I think, it is a big step forward to our freedom and dignity.
We, as a nation, feel humiliated because the justice system is so defective that one surrenders his legal rights in favour of the oppressor. This behaviour is helping a violent and revengeful culture emerging in the shape of terrorism.
Civil litigation has become expensive and takes years and years to get finalised. Justice delayed amounts to justice denied.
There must be some simpler way to adjudicate small value cases as has been done in the United Kingdom by the introduction of simpler and speedier resolution of civil cases.
The essence of the Woolf reform project was that the courts should have a duty to manage cases in the light of a stated "overriding objective".
The new procedural code ensures that the overriding objective of the court is to deal with the cases justly and that means ensuring that the parties are on an equal footing, saving expenses and dealing with the cases in ways that are proportionate to the amount of money involved and the importance of the case.
It is the responsibility of the court to ensure that the cases are decided expeditiously and fairly and that the court allocates appropriate resources to achieve these objectives.
The court actively ensures that the case is properly managed and no time is wasted by the legal profession or by the parties concerned to enable the court to proceed on the matter as per law. This system is not only speedier but also relatively cheap for the parties.
The cases are divided into different tracks and the cases need to be allocated to these different tracks right from the start. The three-track system ensures its proper and speedy handling and the allocation of the right type of resources to dispose of these cases.
The notable feature of this system is that small claims cases are handled in a very simple form and without wasting many resources but at the same time providing proper justice to the aggrieved party.
They also introduced the fast track system whereby cases of a value greater than 5000 and under 15,000 British pounds should take only 30 weeks to trial, with limited pre-trial procedure, a trial confined to no more than three hours, and no oral evidence from experts and standard fixed costs recoverable from the other side.
In case of delay the party would be penalised. This has really worked well and reduced a lot of delays that were faced by the common man.
In our society, we are hesitant to take smaller cases to courts because of the concern of it being expensive and time consuming. In this way, we are accustomed to not asserting our legal rights given to us as citizens of Pakistan. By not asserting our rights, the evils in our society are growing at a faster rate because of the excesses of the parties, who are aware of our current psyche that small cases would not be pursued in the courts of law.
Therefore these unfair practices have become a regular part of our society. These also include insufficient consumer protection cases.
We are deficient in protecting individuals from the excesses committed by those institutions exercising powers under secondary legislation. There should be a way that individual citizens should be able to redress their grievances against these excesses through an appellate process.
This should ensure and strengthen our judicial system protecting individual liberties and disciplining these institutions and tribunals that exercise their power through secondary legislation.
The major demand of an ordinary person in Pakistan is that he should be able to assert his legal rights at a relatively cheap cost and the procedure should be available to him without waste of time.
This demand, from the government, is not something, which cannot be provided to the ordinary person. I think it only needs a desire to fulfill the promise that justice will be available to all the citizens of Pakistan.
If we look at the main objectives of the creation of European Union way back in the 60's, we find that the birth of the European Union was laid upon the foundation of the free movement of goods, workers, establishments, services and capital within the member states.
Each individual was assured that he would be treated with equality, dignity and justice. There would be no discrimination not only among the nationals of the same state but also between the nationals of different states.
This assurance strengthened the Union and the individual liberties and freedom given in its charter was upheld by the Courts to assert individual rights. The same is the case with the United States where the judiciary ensured that individuals should exercise their legal rights and all individuals are free to make their own choices within the law and that all will be treated with equality and there would be no discrimination. These steps made the nation stronger than ever before.
Civil liberties in Pakistan have disappeared gradually over the last several years. We started enacting legislation that started limiting our choices and liberties. We tried to force particular views on all the populations without giving due respect to their cultural and heritage faith in their region.
We tried to limit the essentials of a free society by imposing legislation that gave birth to a close society. It is only recently that the President of Pakistan Pervaiz Musharraf introduced enlightened moderation in our society.
We may not be able to make the society moderate if we do not take effective steps to achieve this objective.
We may have to trust our people and give them more choices to make decisions regarding their future by withdrawing legislation's that force particular views on others. We should review the Zakat and Usher Ordinance and examine it critically if it is serving any good purpose or if the money is being wasted to achieve political objectives.
We should also review the Federal Ordinance forbidding the serving of Valima meals on the pretext that it is unnecessary expenditure. It is discriminatory and limits the civil liberties of the individuals to make choices regarding their way of life. It is also arguable if it is against Sunna. If that argument holds any ground, then we must also review the huge houses being built in posh areas just opposite the Katchi Abadis.
We should also examine, if we should be driving Mercedes when a poor person cannot afford a cycle. We should also be looking at big Iftar parties being hosted by the elites everywhere whereas the common man is struggling to pay school fees for his children. Are we trying to become a socialistic society by these views or we are creating unnecessary hurdles for the common man so that he is unable to act freely.
It is strange to observe that these legislation's do force individuals to violate the law, tell lies and find out loopholes to achieve their objectives. It is surprising to see if, by legislating, we could succeed in limiting the choices of individuals. Gone is the time when the government started running commercial organisations and now we are going back to privatising the same institutions. I think, one day we are going to realise that it is not the government's job to force or limit individual choices.
Let them make their own choices, if they want a valima meal or they want a one dish party. Let us leave this issue to individuals.
We should give serious thought it is the domain of the government to make decisions. If we seriously try to find out the reasons why a lesser number of tourists are coming to Pakistan, we would conclude that it is because we are used to forcing views on others.
Which gives the impression of a closed society. People have very limited means to enjoy their lives. They are always listening to sermons on everything. An ordinary person is always struggling with himself to justify his behaviour and actions.
The Prime Minister should also pay attention to areas affecting personal liberties in Pakistan. This is an important area that has been neglected in the past. It desires that we provide equality to our nationals.
The VIP culture should be removed from our society gradually. All segments of our society should be treated with dignity and respect. This not only requires the government to come out with a planned process to legislate the weaker areas but it also desires a bold judiciary that protects the rights of individual citizens whenever there is a need to do so.
We see policemen every day stopping motorbike drivers on the road demanding money for no fault. These are excesses that demand immediate attention. It hurts the dignity of a citizen when only those who are poor and on motorbikes being asked to verify their identity.
It does not require a brain surgery to find out who the real terrorists are? Are they on the motorbikes or in cars?
We are at a point where, we should make tough choices and we are all hopeful that the head of the government seems to be aware of these choices and that the nation is eager to see that the new leadership, having world-wide experience and exposure and not committed to any views of a particular segment of the society would do his utmost to change the shape of the nation's destiny.
The vision being implemented by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz should change the fate of the nation, if acted honestly and faithfully. We should be able to regain our pride and respect in the world.
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