High Courts of Peshawar and Balochistan, European Union, and UNDP Pakistan Collaborate to Enhance Access to Legal Aid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan

August 23, 2023

Swat, August 23 2023 — Peshawar High Court, Balochistan High Court, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan partnered to organize a two-day consultation workshop with the support of the European Union (EU) funded ‘Deliver Justice Project.’ The workshop brought together stakeholders from the justice sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to discuss challenges and opportunities faced by District Legal Empowerment Committees (DLECs) operating in these provinces.

DLECs were established in 2011 by the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) to provide legal aid or assistance to deserving litigants. The District and Sessions Judge (Zilla Qazi) presides over DLECs and is entrusted with the following duties:

Receiving applications for legal aid
Appointing panels of lawyers to provide legal aid at the district level
Referring legal aid cases to DLEC panel lawyers
Allocating funds for free legal representation
Monitoring the quality of legal aid services

Originally designed to enhance access to justice and legal aid in Pakistan, the optimal utilization of DLECs as a legal aid solution is challenged by access issues impacted by poverty, illiteracy, lack of awareness, cultural and gender barriers, remote locations, and inadequate compensation for lawyers. Based on the recommendations from the baseline study conducted by UNDP Pakistan’s Rule of Law Programme between August 2021 and March 2022, as part of the EU-funded ‘Deliver Justice Project’, an evaluation of citizens’ access to justice and legal aid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan highlighted a crucial requirement for enhancing the service delivery of DLECs. This enhancement aims to establish more sustainable and easily accessible legal aid services in Pakistan with a focus on marginalized groups, such as women, transgender individuals, and children.

In light of the above, UNDP Pakistan’s Rule of Law Programme partnered with the Peshawar and Balochistan High Courts to organize a cross-provincial consultative workshop on issues faced by DLECs in serving their intended function of enabling efficient and effective access to legal aid for local communities, particularly vulnerable groups including women, transgender persons, and children.

At the end of the two-day consultative workshop, participants were able to propose recommendations for more effective functioning of DLECsfor increased synergies between legal aid mechanisms and strengthened capacity of the legal aid system. The following key recommendations were made by participants after the consultation:

Revision of DLEC Rules to simplify the process and scrutiny of applications for legal representation
Improve coordination and cross-referral between DLECs and other legal aid mechanisms
Revisit DLECs’ constitution for enhanced efficiency, defining the role of civil society organizations’ members.

Mr Malik Shoaib Sultan, Deputy Registrar, High Court of Balochistan, and Mr Arshid Jan, Deputy Programme Manager, Rule of Law Programme, UNDP Pakistan were the keynote speakers at the workshop. In his address, Mr Malik Shoaib Sultan, Deputy Registrar, High Court of Balochistan underlined, “Equal access to justice for all cannot be achieved without strengthening the role of DLECs in making legal aid more accessible to the citizens in Pakistan. We are optimistic that the recommendations made in this consultative workshop will prove pivotal in enabling more people to approach formal legal systems to seek justice.” He also appreciated the EU and UNDP for their efforts to make the justice sector more inclusive in Pakistan.

Mr Arshid Jan, Deputy Programme Manager, Rule of Law Programme, UNDP Pakistan, affirmed, “A necessary prerequisite for the rule of law is everyone having access to justice regardless of their gender, age, and socio-economic status. UNDP is committed to securing a future where everyone can claim their legal rights through equal access to free legal aid in Pakistan. We thank our long-term partners Peshawar and Balochistan High Courts, UNODC, UN Women, and the EU for their ongoing collaborations to strengthen peace and justice in the region.”

The “Deliver Justice programme” funded by the EU aims to support reform processes to ensure the delivery of people-centred justice, enhance access to justice for all, particularly women and less privileged groups, and improve service delivery of the security sector in line with constitutional safeguards and international standards in the Merged Districts and Balochistan. The programme is funded by the EU and jointly implemented by UNDP, UN Women, and UNODC.

The UNDP Rule of Law Programme is implementing a range of interventions to enhance security and justice sector governance in Pakistan.

For additional information, please contact Shuja Hakim at shuja.hakim@undp.org or +92 (51) 835 5657

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