In Pakistan, the courts have a severe backlog of more than 2.3 million cases, while there are only approximately 4,300 judges to handle them. For normal people, this means waiting years to get justice. A civil lawsuit, for example, might take 15 years. This lack of efficiency means that there will not be any sense of justice if it continues to be slow and delayed. Furthermore, there is also an issue where litigants or families in disputes have to wait their entire lives to receive justice. Businesses also lose confidence to invest in a country where there are legal uncertainties. Hence, Pakistan’s judiciary needs to adopt a modernized and practical approach to address these lingering issues and become competent enough to deliver timely justice to all.

This crisis can be attributed to a lack of viable alternatives and the structural inefficiency that plagues the system. Due to a lack of alternatives, people often have to resort to courts for every conflict. Meanwhile, the courts still operate under a system implemented during the colonial period, which is highly antiquated and centralized, i.e., with too few judges handling too many cases; therefore, it is not efficient enough to meet modern demands. Thus, there is a need to find newer and more efficient methodologies for dispute resolution, rather than simply relying on conventional litigation.

A viable solution for this is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which includes mediation, arbitration, and conciliation. A dispute that takes numerous years in court can be solved in just a few weeks using ADR. This solution focuses on dialogue and finding a compromise, rather than an adversarial approach. For instance, in mediation, a neutral facilitator helps both sides engage in a dialogue and reach a settlement agreement. The entire process is private, although not as formal as a court proceeding, and is significantly less expensive. In many cases involving contracts, property, or family matters, ADR can yield a result similar to a court judgment, but with substantially less time and........

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