Entertainment
Wrong court, real crisis
As of the end of last year, Pakistan’s courts were sitting on roughly 2.3 million unresolved cases. Nearly 83% were pending in the district judiciary; the remainder was spread across the high courts, the Federal Shariat Court and the Supreme Court.
The SC’s share hovered in the mid-50,000s, a few percentage points of national pendency at most.
Within the superior courts, constitutional work is concentrated rather than dominant: at the Lahore High Court, for example, writ and constitutional matters are about 84,000 out of roughly 179,000 pending cases, close to half of that court’s own docket, yet that entire stock is still a sliver next to the millions of cases stuck below.
Pakistan’s backlog remains, by any measure, overwhelmingly a trial-court problem.
Against that data, parliament has moved with unusual speed. In a short span, a constitutional amendment that creates a Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), shifts constitutional jurisdiction away from the existing Supreme Court and touches sensitive questions of state design has been pushed through, with little committee scrutiny or public engagement.
The government’s explanation is simple. The SC, we are told, is drowning in constitutional and ‘political’ litigation, which has crowded out ordinary appeals. The FCC is offered as the solution: it will take on the constitutional load; the Supreme Court will focus on its appellate role; and the pendency will fall.
The statement of objects and reasons to the Constitution (Twenty-seventh Amendment) Act, 2025 says as much, blaming an “increasing number of constitutional petitions” for delays in regular cases and promising that a specialised court will “significantly reduce pendency”.
That narrative has already been challenged from within the system. Former chief justice Jawwad S Khawaja has taken the amendment back to the court he once led, warning that it will weaken the state, unsettle the separation of powers and erode the consensus around the 1973 constitution.
Since then, the debate has moved from draft to fact. President Asif Ali Zardari has now signed the 27th Amendment into law, creating the new office of the chief of defence forces and establishing the FCC as an operative reality rather than a proposal.
In response, three senior judges, SC justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, and Lahore High Court Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza have resigned in protest, describing the amendment as an assault on the constitution and on judicial independence.
The question for this piece, however, is narrower: if the claim is that the FCC is about backlog relief for the ordinary litigant, do the numbers support that claim?
The SC’s pending caseload has risen from roughly the mid-20,000s in the mid-2010s to around 40,000 by 2018 and past 50,000 by 2021 into the mid-50,000s in 2024–25.
Set against the nationwide stock already noted above, this makes the apex court a small but visible pocket of congestion rather than the epicentre of delay.
Constitutional work, even where it clusters, is numerically marginal once you zoom out from the superior courts to the system as a whole. Even in high courts where writ and constitutional matters occupy a large share of the local docket, that entire layer sits on top of a system in which more than 2.3 million cases are pending, the vast majority in the trial courts.
On any realistic view, the SC’s constitutional workload therefore sits well below even one or two per cent of the national total; even if every case on its list were re-badged as ‘constitutional’, it would still barely dent the overall numbers.
The court itself has acknowledged that a large portion of its docket consists of review petitions rather than fresh constitutional challenges. And in its own case law on special courts, it has warned that creating new forums or simply adding judges does not cure delay; the real work lies in case and court management, especially in the lower tiers.
Taken together, the data and the doctrine point in the same direction: Pakistan’s backlog is overwhelmingly a trial-court phenomenon. The problem the FCC is meant to solve is numerically marginal.
Under the 27th Amendment, the FCC is designed to exercise original constitutional jurisdiction —including federal–provincial disputes and many fundamental-rights questions while hearing constitutional appeals from the high courts.
The existing SC is recast as largely an appellate tribunal for other work. Ironically, even if one assumes, very generously, that a full one-third of current Supreme Court pendency is “constitutional”, we are dealing with perhaps twenty thousand such cases in a system of more than 2.3 million. On that assumption, the FCC’s core field of operation covers well under one per cent of the pending caseload in Pakistan.
Nor will the FCC simply inherit existing matters and work through them quietly. New courts generate their own litigation – jurisdictional contests between the Supreme Court, FCC and high courts, challenges to composition and appointments, fresh layers of appeal and review. A body created and justified as a relief mechanism for the “ordinary litigant” is, by design, aimed at the smallest and most elite slice of the docket.
All this might still be defensible if the FCC were cheap. It is not. The SC’s budget for 2023–24 is in the region of Rs3.5 billion, largely consumed by salaries and allowances.
A parallel constitutional court, with its own judges, registries, security, infrastructure and staff, will, even if initially lean, operate in the same order of magnitude.
Those billions are being contemplated in the middle of an IMF programme demanding tight fiscal consolidation, cuts in non-priority spending and difficult adjustments in social and development sectors. Meanwhile, the district judiciary, which carries more than four-fifths of the backlog, struggles with basic infrastructure, staff shortages and overburdened judges.
The same capital injected in trial-level capacity in the form of more judges and clerks, reliable process-serving, functional courtrooms, ADR mechanisms, case-flow management and IT would strike at the heart of delay.
Justice Khawaja’s petition therefore, reads less like a personal lament and more like a diagnosis. The amendment, he argues, is “so patently unconstitutional on the face of it” that it ought to have been rejected by parliamentarians sworn to preserve and protect the constitution.
An amendment that strips the SC of its constitutional powers “effectively abolishes [it] as a constitutional court” and is “clearly incompatible with the constitution”.
If the legislature and executive may abolish the highest court and substitute it with another forum manned by their nominees, they are empowered to “change the rules of the game as and when they deem fit” — a result fundamentally at odds with separation of powers and judicial independence.
The federal government asks us to see the FCC as a kindness to the ordinary litigant. The numbers suggest something else: that the new court is aimed not at the backlog of cases that burden citizens, but at the backlog of constitutional questions that burden power.
If it is to be born in the ordinary litigant’s name, the least we owe that litigant is honesty about what problem it is really being built to solve.
Originally published in The News
Lamar Odom offered his own perspective on the events surrounding his 2015 overdose, and it doesn’t fully align with Khloé Kardashian’s account.
In Netflix’s Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom, Kardashian was portrayed as a central figure in his recovery.
She was shown to have stayed by his side throughout his four-month hospital stay.
But in a new appearance on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle, the former NBA star downplayed the idea that she “saved” him.
“She stood by your side, she saved your life,” Jenna Bush Hager said.
“In some ways,” Odom replied. “God saved my life. My lord saved my life, honestly… Yeah, she took care of me, but God took care of me the most. What I came back from is like a medical miracle.”
The documentary also featured Kardashian’s claim that Odom’s father, Joe, urged doctors to remove him from life support until she intervened.
She alleged Joe agreed to back down after she gave him $100 and a pair of Nikes.
The 46-year-old rejected that version.
“You know, I was knocked out and asleep at that time,” he said.
“If you know Joe Odom, I don’t think that’s something he would ever come out of his mouth. He was my biggest fan. I don’t know where that got mistranslated.”
After leaving the hospital, Kardashian rented Odom a home near hers in Calabasas and arranged for a caretaker and chef.
But when she discovered him smoking crack, she admitted she “just punched him in the face” before cutting ties.
“I just put my life on hold to f—ing take care of you,” Kardashian said in the documentary.
“He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him.”
The two didn’t reconnect until nearly a decade later, during a 2025 episode of The Kardashians, when Odom visited her home to collect keepsakes.
“It was awkward, and it wasn’t really good for me,” he admitted. “But once you’re family, you’re always family, so she ain’t going nowhere.”
Though he acknowledges the bond they once shared, Odom made it clear their relationship will never be romantic again.
“I will always have love for her, but being in love, no,” he said.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ‘dirty’ secrets took toll on Duchess Sophie’s mental health despite the royal family’s stern action against the former Prince.
The ‘disgraced’ member of the firm and his inappropriate ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein shook the world, including those who support women’s rights.
Sophie is also one of those activists. She, as a working member of the firm, supports such initiatives, helping women facing abuse, especially in conflict areas of the world.
Now, a royal expert has shed light on the Duchess of Edinburgh’s possible reaction after knowing Andrew’s years-long connection with Epstein.
As per the Mirror, Jennie Bond first pointed out the “close bond” once shared by the late Queen’s sons, Andrew and Edward.
The Duke of Edinburgh was even the first royal to visit Andrew to urge him to speed up his move to Marsh Farm.
“As the two youngest sons of the late Queen – both of them a decade or more younger than their siblings – Edward and Andrew probably have the closest bond,” she shared.
It must be hard for Edward to “witness” his brother’s disgraceful downfall, but he is loyal to his wife, who always raised her voice for sexually abused women.
Jennie said, “How utterly depressing it must be for Sophie to learn about the long-standing and close friendship between her brother-in-law and a convicted paedophile.”
- NAB reforms to ensure transparent leadership selection.
- Anti-corruption plan targets top high-risk departments.
- Banks to access officials’ asset data.
Pakistan has assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of implementing key anti-corruption reforms, including public disclosure of civil servants’ asset declarations and granting greater operational autonomy to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) under agreed structural benchmarks by January 2027, The News reported.
To provide independence and operational autonomy to the leading anti-corruption agency, NAB’s institutional independence will be ensured through a transparent selection process for senior management and the publication of operating rules and statistics, under the new structural benchmark set for end-January 2027.
The government has given a written commitment to the IMF that it will review and improve the appointment process for the NAB chairman.
Under the guidance of the Anti-Corruption and AML/CFT Committee, proposed amendments to the NAB Ordinance will be developed and laid before Parliament to: (i) adopt pre-determined qualification criteria (eg, years of experience, integrity standards); (ii) establish a merit-based, open and competitive selection process; and (iii) designate a multi-sectoral stakeholder commission (with representatives from the government, opposition, judiciary, civil service, academia and civil society) to conduct an open, rules-based, rigorous and transparent recruitment.
“The government will also publish NAB’s standard operating procedures and rules, as well as annual statistics regarding the investigation, prosecution and conviction of corruption offences on NAB’s website,” the government assured the IMF.
Pakistan and the IMF have agreed on the completion of the third review under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme. Under this agreement, Islamabad will strengthen institutional capacities and take further measures to fight corruption to support inclusive growth and a level playing field for businesses and investments.
The publication of asset declarations of high-level federal civil servants will be accomplished by the end of December 2026. The Establishment Division has revised the Civil Servant (Conduct) Rules requiring: (i) centralised digital submission and collection of asset declarations; (ii) risk-based verification; and (iii) disclosure of declarations with limited restrictions on confidential personal information.
The Establishment Division is set to revise the declaration form to specify restrictions on confidential personal information by the end of May 2026, and in coordination with the FBR, will develop a framework for risk-based verifications.
The FBR will develop a digital platform for the submission of asset declarations by the end of June 2026 to facilitate the implementation of the reform.
To grant access to asset declarations for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (CFT) purposes, the SBP, FBR and FMU will continue to support banks’ access to asset declarations of high-level federal public officials (BPS 17-22).
The FBR has issued a notification to expand banks’ access to cover asset declarations of any officer of the federal or provincial governments or autonomous bodies, corporations and companies owned by such governments. To enhance banks’ awareness, by June 2026, the government will publish access statistics on the FBR’s website.
Tasked by the Anti-Corruption and AML/CFT Committee — constituted by the Prime Minister of Pakistan and chaired by the Minister for Law and Justice — the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been designated to lead the development of an action plan to mitigate corruption vulnerabilities in the top ten government departments identified with the highest corruption risks. This plan is to be completed by the end of October 2026 as a Structural Benchmark.
To guide the development of the plan, in consultation with and agreement of IMF staff, the Anti-Corruption and AML/CFT Committee will, by end-June 2026, develop and publish a methodology for assessing and prioritising agency-level corruption risks, along with protocols for conducting risk assessments, reporting and reviewing results of the analysis, and defining the plan to reduce corruption risks in identified agencies.
The methodology should lay out the assessment criteria, making use of relevant information held by agencies and ministries across government, including NAB, the Auditor General, the Competition Commission, the FBR and the FIA. It should consider: (i) the value of money at risk due to corruption vulnerabilities related to the agency’s functions and budget; (ii) typologies of corruption in the assessed agency; (iii) the existence of structural weaknesses that give rise to corruption vulnerabilities; and (iv) information on the frequency of corruption, including past and ongoing corruption cases.
The government has apprised the IMF that it has established three committees to monitor progress under the recently published Economic Governance Reform (EGR) plan, which implements the priority recommendations of the GCD report. Progress reports will be prepared on a six-month basis to track implementation and will be published on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
The government is going to organise a policy dialogue in April 2026 to discuss institutional and structural implementation issues, design of performance indicators, common challenges and cross-cutting issues, public monitoring, reporting and capacity development. The government will invite development partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to participate in this process.
Based on these discussions and in close consultation with key stakeholders, the government will develop and publish outcome-based updates on progress in its semi-annual report. These updates will serve as a backdrop to a second policy dialogue in July 2026, which will take stock of the six-month implementation of the EGR plan.
The government will continue enhancing the capacities of Provincial Anti-Corruption Establishments (PACEs) to conduct financial investigations related to corruption at the provincial level. In line with the AML Act and the National Fiscal Pact, the relevant federal notification process initiated by the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) will be issued by the end of December 2026, designating the PACEs to investigate money laundering related to corruption offences within their jurisdiction, and to request and receive financial intelligence from the FMU as an investigating agency.
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