The failure of our justice system can be seen by looking at
the fact that more than two hundred thousand cases are pending in our civil
courts. The people of Pakistan are being denied the rights and justice that the
State promises them.
To ensure order in any society, there is a need for a judicial system and where the State fails, sub-national alternative systems of justice come into play- namely Jirgahs and Panchayats in Pakistan. In areas where the state fails to provide justice or where tribal systems of justice exist, the rulings of these local justice systems are binding. While these systems are necessitated to ensure some sort of order in society, the rulings of these courts often target women. This is apparent in practises such as vani where women are forced to marry as a form of compensatory blood money.
These systems do not have any uniform law and their verdicts are the result of discussion between the male elders of a village/locality.
To ensure order in any society, there is a need for a judicial system and where the State fails, sub-national alternative systems of justice come into play- namely Jirgahs and Panchayats in Pakistan. In areas where the state fails to provide justice or where tribal systems of justice exist, the rulings of these local justice systems are binding. While these systems are necessitated to ensure some sort of order in society, the rulings of these courts often target women. This is apparent in practises such as vani where women are forced to marry as a form of compensatory blood money.
These systems do not have any uniform law and their verdicts are the result of discussion between the male elders of a village/locality.
These local courts surpass the legal system of the state and
take the law into their own hands. While this system can be used to achieve the
justice that the State fails to give, it can also be used as a system of persecution
of a particular group, mostly women. The verdicts of these courts are subjective
and are usually culture bound, at times violating fundamental human rights. Therefore, we see that these systems do not provide justice to all groups in the society.
Despite the failure of the justice system, it is legitimate to substitute jirgahs and panchayats as avenues of providing justice?
A person cannot take the law into his/her own hands every time the State fails to grant him justice. It would undermine the monopoly of the authority that the State holds. At the same time, however, it would be wrong to completely abolish these alternate system if justice.
In order to deal with this issue, we need to look for the reason behind the inception of such systems. The reason why these systems came into existence, as I already mentioned, is the failure of the existing system to provide justice. Instead of completely abolishing the jirgah system (despite its many faults), we should try to reform the current judicial system. The right time to abolish all the sub-national systems of justice would be when we are sure that the judicial system of the State is capable enough to provide justice to all citizens of this country.
Despite the failure of the justice system, it is legitimate to substitute jirgahs and panchayats as avenues of providing justice?
A person cannot take the law into his/her own hands every time the State fails to grant him justice. It would undermine the monopoly of the authority that the State holds. At the same time, however, it would be wrong to completely abolish these alternate system if justice.
In order to deal with this issue, we need to look for the reason behind the inception of such systems. The reason why these systems came into existence, as I already mentioned, is the failure of the existing system to provide justice. Instead of completely abolishing the jirgah system (despite its many faults), we should try to reform the current judicial system. The right time to abolish all the sub-national systems of justice would be when we are sure that the judicial system of the State is capable enough to provide justice to all citizens of this country.
1 comment:
We all like to throw around phrases like "fundamental human rights", but which rights are you specifically referring to?
Also, why do we grant the state the monopoly of authority? Shouldn't it lie with the people and not the state? And if so, aren't the people that use the jirga and panchayat systems representative of the local peoples?
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