Islamabad, August 16, 2025: The Supreme Court has warned that prolonged delays in adjudicating cases weaken public confidence in the judiciary, undermine the rule of law, and disproportionately harm vulnerable litigants unable to bear the cost of lengthy litigation, an English daily reported on Saturday.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha Malik, made the observations in a four-page judgment dismissing a petition filed by Abdul Salam Khan against a Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict in a property auction dispute.
The bench noted that the case had been pending for 14 years — including a decade before the PHC — before finally reaching the apex court in 2022, where it was taken up this year.
Justice Shah, authoring the verdict, stressed that the Supreme Court could not “remain indifferent to the systemic malaise of delay in the adjudication of cases.”
“It is beyond cavil that delay in adjudicating cases corrodes public confidence in the judiciary, undermines the rule of law, and disproportionately harms the weak and vulnerable who cannot afford prolonged litigation,” the verdict stated.
The judgment further cautioned that delays carried “severe macroeconomic and societal consequences,” deterring investment, rendering contracts meaningless, and eroding the institutional legitimacy of the judiciary.
Citing official data, the court highlighted that more than 2.2 million cases are currently pending across Pakistan, including nearly 56,000 before the Supreme Court alone. Justice Shah warned: “Justice delayed is not merely justice denied; it is often justice extinguished.”
Treating the issue as a matter of institutional policy and constitutional responsibility, the court urged immediate reforms, including the adoption of a “modern, responsive, and intelligent” case management system.
Justice Shah outlined key steps for reform including early and non-discriminatory fixation of cases, elimination of queue-jumping and preferential scheduling, prioritisation of matters of constitutional, economic, or national importance without undermining individual claims, age-tracking protocols to identify dormant cases and judicious use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for scheduling and triage, while safeguarding judicial discretion.
