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3. History
o Pakistan’s judicial system stems directly from the system
that was used in British India as on independence in 1947
o India Act 1935 was retained as a provisional Constitution
o As a consequence, the legal and judicial system of the
British period continued with due adaptations/modifications,
where necessary, to meet the new Republic.

7. o Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan’s court system
and is the final arbiter of all legal and constitutional matters
o The permanent seat of the Supreme Court is in Islamabad,
while it has Branch Registries in all four provincial capitals i.e.
Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.
o Qualification
o Appointment procedure

15. o Lahore High Court – for the province of Punjab
o Sindh High Court – for the province of Sindh
o Peshawar High Court – for the province of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa
o Balochistan High Court – for the province of Balochistan
o Islamabad High Court – for the federal capital city of
Islamabad
o The High Court is an appellate court for all civil and criminal
matters in the respective province
o Qualification
o Appointment procedure

16. o The procedure of civil justice system in Pakistan is
governed and regulated by the Code of Civil
Procedure 1908.
o This law is enforced through the civil courts.
o Civil courts in Pakistan are established by the
respective province under different laws titled the Civil
Courts Ordinance 1962, which recognizes the following
main classes of civil courts:

17. o The court of District Judge;
o The court of Additional District Judge; and
o The court of Civil Judge.

18. o All civil courts in Pakistan are subordinate to the High
Court and subject to the general superintendence and
control of the High Court, the District Judge has control
over all civil courts within the local limits of his
jurisdiction. The High Court is not a civil court.

19. o District Judges are appointed by the Provincial
Government in consultation with the High Court.
o There is a District Judge for each district in the
province. The court of the District Judge is the highest
court of original civil jurisdiction in the district.

20. o Additional District Judges are appointed by the
Provincial Government and they perform such
functions of the District Judge as the District Judge
may assign.
o The power to appoint Civil Judges, to fix the number of
Civil Judges and to make rules prescribing
qualifications for recruitment of persons as Civil Judges
vests in the Provincial Government.

21. o However, the power to post a Civil Judge to district, the
power to determine the local limits of the jurisdiction of
the Civil Judge and the general power to fix the
pecuniary limits of the jurisdiction of the Civil Judge
vest in the relevant High Court.

22. o The High Courts have, for the purpose of determining
the pecuniary limits of the jurisdiction to be exercised
by Civil Judges, placed the Civil Judges in three distinct
classes i.e. Civil Judge 1st Class, Civil Judge 2nd
Class, and Civil Judge 3rd Class.

23. o The police and the criminal courts are the most visible
features of criminal justice system in Pakistan
o While the police investigates offences and sends the
offenders to stand trials before the courts
o The courts’ function is to try the offences, get at the
truth of the crime and in case of proof of crime to
punish the offender in accordance with law.

24. o The criminal procedure system in Pakistan is laid down
in the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898,
o The substantive law about definition of a crime and its
punishment is found in the Pakistan Penal Code 1860.
o The Pakistan Penal Code contains the law which
determines whether an act or omission is a crime, and
the Code of Criminal Procedure is about the procedure
by which the criminal law is enforced.

25. o The law of evidence is the part of the law of the
procedure with the help of which criminal offences are
proved
o However, there are other special laws as well which lay
down different procedural and substantive criminal laws
in Pakistan
o The main criminal courts in Pakistan are as follows:
o The High Courts
o The Courts of Session
o The Courts of Magistrate

26. o High Courts are constitutional courts established by the
Constitution of Pakistan, however they also exercise
powers as criminal courts.
o A court of session is established by the relevant
Provincial Government for every geographical division.
A court of session consists of a Sessions Judge and
Additional Sessions Judge.

27. o Magistrates are of three different categories i.e.
Magistrate of the 1st Class, Magistrate of the 2nd
Class, and Magistrate of the 3rd Class. All magistrates
are subordinate to the Sessions Judge of their
respective division.

28. o There are also many special tribunals, courts and
boards in Pakistan which are created through different
laws for specific areas of laws. Examples include the
following:
o Family Courts
o Juvenile Courts
o Anti-Narcotics Courts
o Banking Courts

29. o Income Tax Tribunals
o Consumer Courts
o Services Tribunals
o Anti Corruption Courts
o Anti Terrorism Courts
o Board of Revenues
o Labor Relations Courts

30. Introduction
o Lawyers have their own unique discipline and
approach to the resolution of legal problems. Not
surprisingly, there are laws about determining the law.
o One of the most important of these laws is the law of
precedent or stare decisis
o Different legal systems have different approaches to
the proper way of deciding a legal point.

31. o The operation of the doctrine of stare decisis is best
explained by reference to the English translation of the
Latin phrase. “Stare decisis” literally translates as
o “to stand by decided matters”.
o The phrase “stare decisis” is itself an abbreviation of
the Latin phrase
o “stare decisis et non quieta movere”
o which translates as “to stand by decisions and not to
disturb settled matters”.

32. o Basically, under the doctrine of stare decisis, the
decision of a higher court within the same jurisdiction
acts as binding authority on a lower court within that
same jurisdiction.
o The decision of a court of another jurisdiction only acts
as persuasive authority. The degree of persuasiveness
is dependent upon various factors, including,

33. o First, the nature of the other jurisdiction.
o Second, the degree of persuasiveness is dependent
upon the level of court which decided the precedent
case in the other jurisdiction.
o Other factors include the date of the precedent case,
on the assumption that the more recent the case, the
more reliable it will be as authority for a given
proposition, although this is not necessarily so. And on
some occasions, the judge’s reputation may affect the
degree of persuasiveness of the authority.

34. o All Subordinate courts are bound to follow the decisions of
High Courts and Supreme Court.
o All High Courts are bound to follow the decisions of Supreme
Court.
o Single bench of supreme court is bound to follow decisions of
larger bench.