My article will concentrate on the judicial system,fairness of trial

My article will concentrate on the judicial system, fairness of trial, government and its restrictions, capital punishment, and power misconduct in the light of civic and citizenship in relation to Pakistan's paradigm.

Albert campus(1913-1950) was a French-Algerian writer, journalist and political activist. He argued against capital punishment and state authority to take someone's life. His one of the famous books, “Reflection on the Guillotine” is regarded as an influential writing during the period of French Revolution. The fact that execution is an irreversible act so he believes the state should go through an extensive investigation before putting someone to death, further he challenged the fact that does the government hold' enough authority to put someone on guillotine & what if the accusation was made with lawlessness. Then who shall be accountable? Likewise we can deduce that in Pakistan, primarily in high profile cases it is very likely that the person convicted will be innocent and the tragedy remains. According to journal of law and social studies 39% of the acquittals were later founded completely innocent by the lower courts in Pakistan, moreover 78% of the death sentences handed down by trial courts were regarded as unsafe by the supreme Court of Pakistan (A study of Reprieve US)

Therefore capital punishment is a controversial topic because there is no way back. Albert Campus emphasized on rehabilitation yet he believed the state should take a strict action against the criminals and investigate the case thoroughly. According to Albert the time span of an accused person convicted for a tribal either-way offence or an indictable offence raise major concerns over a fair trial. The accused can meantime manipulate with the weapon of offences and other witnesses which can hinder the fairity of a trial, alternatively immediate justice can lead to misconduct and abuse of power. Campus believe that justice must be balanced by compassion because courts are operated by human beings so the vacuum of mistake is present. In view of this ideology I'd like to quote the Nazm, “Admi Nama” by Nazeer Akbar abadi where he beautifully illustrates the mechanism of evil and good and displays how virtuous & vicious lies within human beings.

دنیا میں پادشہ ہے سو ہے وہ بھی آدمی

اور مفلس و گدا ہے سو ہے وہ بھی آدمی

کل آدمی کا حسن و قبح میں ہے یاں ظہور

شیطاں بھی آدمی ہے جو کرتا ہے مکر و زور

یاں آدمی پہ جان کو وارے ہے آدمی

اور آدمی پہ تیغ کو مارے ہے آدمی

In light to both the views of Albert and Nazeer it is certain that the person accused/guilty and the person labelling someone guilty of an offence are both human beings and naturally humans do take missteps so moderation should be encouraged when dealing with prickly subjects.

Apart from Albert Campus a German jurist, legal scholar, and politician Rudolf von Gneist examined the idea of a state whose administration operates within legally defined limits rather than according to unrestricted official discretion, written in his work Der Rechtsstaat (1872) during the time of German Unification and Prussia's constitutional struggle. He argued that the government must be bound by law and citizens should have remedies against unlawful administration and for this to happen a strong institution for constitutional principles should be established. Rudolf deemed that citizenship is a contract between the state and the citizens, so the state is liable to uphold the dignity of its citizens.

According to my erudition, the ideology of Rudolf is very imperative. Imagine a government with indefinite powers which can amend whatever laws he wants, imprison anyone without a fair trial, practice martial control and create policies they like, surprisingly its not your imagination but an austere reality which the world had witnessed before, specifically the regions of Indo-Pak before partition, when the famous Jallianwala Bagh massacre / Amritsar massacre (April 13,1919) happened. General Dyer equipped with ultimate powers under the Rowlatt Act killed hundreds of unarmed protestants is a prime example that with great power comes more power. Adding into it during the epoch of the French Revolution the notorious cult of Maximilien Robespierre also known as Reign of Terror , abuse of power led to 45,000 casualties, just on the basis of suspicion. Furthermore in Pakistan at the time of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, federal security force (FSF) enjoyed absolute anarchy which in return paved the way to execution of Z.A Bhutto. Referring to these historical events I believe that in current times Pakistan is on a verge to experience the same tragedy back due to the formation of the Crime Control Department (CCD).  Recent accidents at Multan and the previous Chakwal incident have raised questions over the powers awarded to CCD. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), CCD have killed 924 suspects during an eight month period from April to December (2025) and there are no official statistics available which confirms that all these executions were backed legally. Not just CCD but the 27th Constitutional Amendment passed in November 2025, creating a unified post of the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) was a constitutional tactic to consolidate the military power in Pakistan. It's evident that when the hierarchy of power is disturbed the consequences are horrible, often paid by the innocents. Here the study and proposal of Rudolf is extremely pertinent. Power must be shared so its snags are minimised and the Judiciary must be filtered from any political bias to uphold the eminence of fair trial.

To conclude we can fetch the phenomenon of citizenship as a shared contract between the state and citizens and that power should be practiced within the legal sphere to avoid any mishap. It is a collaborative measure to keep evaluating our judicial, political, social and military development and to foster dialogue and criticism in the society to mine out the optimum capacity of democracy and justice.

Written By: Talha Qamar

Talha.Q is a student of Liberal Arts & Social Science at Beaconhouse National University. He is a social media activist, scriptwriter, and Director of multiple PSA's. Currently he is working on interfaith harmony, gender & minority inclusion, social integrity, and wokeness culture.