Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar Performance evaluated!

He was elevated to the office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 31 December 2016.

He will retire after a tenure of 2 years in January 2019. Saqib Nisar performance was the 2nd longest serving CJP to take office since the Lawyers Movement, after former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

During the tenure of Saqib Nisar performance of the Case Pendency of the Supreme Court of Pakistan rose by more than 8,000 cases, which is highest for any tenure in the recent history of Pakistan.

The rising number of Pending cases in the Supreme Court has been attributed to the ever increasing Case Pendency Ratio, which means the rate of Case Disposal has not been able to match the rate Case Institution.

In our previous post, we reported that the current number of Pending cases in the Supreme Court stand at 40,000+ which stood at about 33,000 at the end of 2016.

Case Pendency Ratio had increased from 1.266 in 2016 to 1.395 in 2017. Annual figures for the year 2018 have not been released into the public domain by the Supreme Court (SCP) or the Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP).

Case Pendency Ratio is a more accurate measure of the Supreme Court’s yearly performance, while Case Lag shows the historic performance.

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One reason for this may be the number of Superior Court Judges in Pakistan. But experts also argue that the number has already, which was 7 Judges in 1947 to 16 Judges currently. The establishment of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in 2010 had also lessened the burden on Provincial High courts and the Supreme Court. Others also argue that better Case Management and improvements in Procedure Codes may be needed to reduce the burden on the Supreme court of Pakistan.