Farida had paid Rs1.9 million towards a flat worth Rs2.35 million when illness intervened. She could not clear the remaining dues and the builder cancelled the booking. But the refund that she was offered came to a fraction of what she had already paid.

Farida went to court. Four years passed. She won at trial, an appeal followed. Only later did the dispute reach mediation, where it was settled in four sittings. The relief was real. So was the thought that four years of litigation had not delivered what four sittings eventually did.

Farida’s case is not unusual. What is unusual is that it was eventually resolved.

By the end of June 2025, 2.27 million cases were pending across Pakistan’s courts — and the judiciary was operating with nearly 1,200 fewer judges than its own sanctioned strength. According to the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), a statutory authority, 361,677 of the pending cases were in the superior courts and 1,908,907 in the district judiciary.

Pakistan does not need to invent mediation. It needs to stop treating it as a peripheral remedy and start using it early, before ordinary civil disputes are pushed into years of litigation

Pakistan does not need to invent mediation. It needs to stop treating it as a peripheral remedy and start using it early, before ordinary civil disputes are pushed into years of litigation

The Ministry of Law and Justice has itself acknowledged that civil disputes can take up to 15 years to conclude. A judiciary — particularly one dealing with such a backlog — cannot go on assuming that every civil dispute must begin, and often end, in full adversarial litigation.

Mediation offers a different route: a confidential process in which a neutral third party helps the parties reach a negotiated settlement — without imposing one. The parties remain free to settle or to walk away. Litigation decides rights through adjudication. Mediation tests whether a practical, lawful settlement can be reached sooner, and at lower human and financial cost.

The costs of delay are not confined to questions of humane justice. Prolonged civil disputes create uncertainty, complicate contracts and push small businesses away from legitimate........

© Dawn (Magazines)