EDITORIAL: Chief Justice Yahya Afridi’s February 16 directive to fast-track all pending death penalty and life imprisonment proceedings brought before the Supreme Court until January 2026, and to resolve all of these within the coming 45 days signals a long-overdue assertion of urgency at the apex of the judicial system. The move could mark a decisive break from a culture of chronic delay that has left litigants trapped in limbo for years and eroded the public’s trust in the rule of law. Ever since Chief Justice Afridi assumed office in October 2024, a notably positive aspect of his tenure has been the focus on clearing the huge backlog of cases at the top court. A series of administrative and procedural reforms was undertaken that brought thousands of pending cases spanning criminal appeals, revenue and taxation matters, land disputes and juvenile justice within a more structured framework, with category-specific timelines formally laid down to guide their disposal. As a result, criminal case pendency, for example, has declined from 19,549 in October 2024 to 12,705 today. The grim reality, however, is that the Supreme Court’s docket represents only a fraction of what is truly a national crisis. Roughly, 2.2 million cases are pending across Pakistan’s courts, with nearly 82 percent stuck in the trial courts and subordinate judiciary, which is where citizens first encounter the justice system, with many never escaping its grip. Here, adjournments are culture, procedures change with little predictability and litigants are too often treated as inconveniences rather than rights-bearing individuals. Corruption, incompetence, chronic inefficiency and disregard for due process across the lower judiciary, prosecution services and police have combined to create a system that exhausts time, money, and faith of the public. It is evident then that until this foundational tier is reformed with urgency and rigour, progress at the apex court, however commendable, will remain only a partial remedy to a deeply entrenched malaise. The glacial pace at which Pakistan’s justice system operates has exacted a particularly severe toll on criminal cases. Over 102,000 inmates occupy the country’s 128 prisons – 152 percent over capacity – giving rise to rights violations, inhumane living conditions and crushing strain on prison infrastructure. Shockingly, under-trial prisoners constitute roughly 73 percent of this population, clearly showcasing a system failing to deliver timely justice. At the heart of this crisis lies a deeply entrenched culture of adjournments that permeates the lower courts. In jurisdictions where the rule of law carries real meaning, a trial, once commenced, proceeds to its conclusion without interruption. In Pakistan, by contrast, adjournments and stay orders remain the order of the day. Within the lower judicial echelons, especially, there is little in the way of efficient trial management. Accountability is rare, with delays normalised, transforming the promise of justice into a prolonged ordeal. The human cost of this dysfunction is most acute for death row prisoners awaiting appeals in the high courts or the Supreme Court. Many spend decades in squalid, overcrowded conditions, trapped in uncertainty and unimaginable mental torment. Legally, detention equalling or exceeding a life sentence contravenes Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code, with the Supreme Court invoking this provision last year to commute a death sentence, recognising that decades spent awaiting execution effectively constitute a life term already served, but in practice unfortunately this safeguard is largely ignored. While the chief justice’s efforts in reducing enormous case backlogs deserves appreciation, he must now also confront the entrenched culture of adjournments in the lower courts. Without a complete overhaul of trial management mechanisms and strict accountability enforced within the lower judiciary, the delivery of timely and fair justice will remain out of reach for a hapless public. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026