Ahmed Aziz (Licensed Lawyer at Sindh Bar Council) has posted Beyond Judicial Backlog: A Rights-Based Triage Framework for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Pakistan on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Pakistan’s debate on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is frequently framed as a response to judicial backlog. This article argues that backlog alone is an inadequate basis for deciding whether a dispute should leave ordinary adjudication. The more important question is which disputes are legally and practically suitable for ADR, through which mechanism, and subject to what safeguards.
Using a doctrinal-comparative method and a structured purposive review of fifteen reported Supreme Court decisions from 2018 to 2026, the article examines Pakistan’s federal and provincial ADR frameworks, domestic and foreign arbitration, statutory family-law reconciliation, community-based dispute resolution and recent institutional reform.
It proposes a three-stage Rights-Based ADR Triage Framework examining: first, legal eligibility, including statutory authority and arbitrability; second, rights and process suitability, including consent, safety, bargaining inequality and the need for judicial protection; and third, institutional fitness, including neutral competence, proportionality, enforceability and judicial supervision. The framework also distinguishes consensual facilitation of legally compoundable offences from the judicial determination of criminal guilt or punishment.
The article argues that Pakistan’s next ADR challenge is not indiscriminate expansion but disciplined case selection, institutional coordination and measurable implementation. ADR should complement a functioning judiciary rather than substitute for one.
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