Law:

the principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to
its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and
enforced by judicial decision.
any written or positive rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the state or
nation, as by the people in its constitution. Compare bylaw, statute law.
Role of law:
Definition: The index for Rule of Law captures perceptions of the extent to which agents
have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract
enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and
violence.

Introduction:

Rule of law is a legal maxim that suggests that governmental decisions be made by applying
known principles.The phrase can be traced back to 17th century and was popularized in the
19th century by British jurist A. V. Dicey. The concept was familiar to ancient philosophers
such as Aristotle, who wrote "Law should govern".Rule of law implies that every citizen is
subject to the law. It stands in contrast to the idea that the ruler is above the law, for example
by divine right.

Rule of law in Pakistan:

Rule of law means the rule of law and law alone. All arbitrary decisions are prone to quash
the rule of law. An authoritarian order manifests the rule of power instead of the rule of law.
Rule of law entails equality of all the citizens irrespective of sex, caste, creed or color and
ensures justice to all and sundry. If basic human rights of any individual cannot be asserted in
a court, there is no rule of law. No civilized society can exist in absence of a regular system
of justice and therefore independent judiciary consisting of highly merited and conscientious
judges is essential to do justice between different individuals, and especial between society
and the state. Similarly there must be a fearless Bar to courageously uphold the cause of the
people.

Apart form any government, there must be rule of elected representatives who must be
chosen by the people, and not having been selected or foisted on people by a dictator or his
agents through process of controlled democracy or engineered elections. The rule of law
implies that government authority may only be exercised in accordance with written laws,
which are adopted through an established procedure. The principle is intended to be a
safeguard against arbitrary rulings in individual cases. The rule of law is fundamental to the
any kind of democratic order whether it is parliamentary or presidential form of government.
 Rule of law is an ancient ideal of Western Culture first posited by Plato more than 2,500
years ago as a system of rules inherent in the natural order. Aristotle said: The rule of law is
better than that of any individual. Another quote from Aristotles The Politics that when laws
do not rule, there is no constitution fits most aptly to Pakistans political catastrophe and
constitutional dilemma. The simple fact is that precise functioning of the Constitution guards
freedoms and liberties of the citizens. It creates a feeling of self-respect and inculcates love
for the country and its belongings.
On the converse its suspension, interruption or postponement undermines patriotism of the
citizens and above all degrades the pride and dignity of the country. The rule of law in its
modern sense owes a great deal to the late Professor AV Dicey whose writings are of
enduring significance. He pinpoints the essential characteristics of the rule of law as below:
The supremacy of law, which means that all persons (individuals and government) are subject
to law.

A concept of justice which emphasizes interpersonal adjudication, law based on standards

and the importance of procedures:

Restrictions on the exercise of discretionary power.

The doctrine of judicial precedent.
The common law methodology.
Ensuring legislation as prospective and not retrospective.
An independent judiciary.
The exercise by Parliament of the legislative power and restrictions on exercise of legislative
power by the executive.
An underlying moral basis for all law.

The rule of law is a cornerstone of well-functioning democracy while if it is blatantly

violated, the establishment of a democratic structure in the country is jeopardized. Though
our country at the outset of its creation was lodged with problems including that of a 1,000-
mile of hostile territory between its two wings and a hostile neighbor hovering at both
boundaries, had we observed the rule of law, we could have retained our eastern wing and
avoided fall of Dacca. It was the absence of the rule of law that fractured our political,
economic and social system. It is tragic that even after 55 years of its existence the State is
looking for sustainable democracy. The rule of law ensures stability, discipline and order in
the society. But its absence and rampant corruption leading to erosion in social values are two
main hurdles to the betterment and development of our country.
It goes without saying that the rule of law is meaningless when the law itself has become
flawed and does not ensure the enjoyment of all rights to all, without discrimination.
Unfortunately institutions, including the judiciary, and the police are debilitated and made to
subserve the executive. We have to evaluate where things have gone wrong over the last
decades and urgently need to promulgate constitutional, legal and institutional reforms which
could guarantee that all people in Pakistan can enjoy the full range of human rights free from
discrimination and fear.
The constitution of a country is a living and vibrant document that determines the future
direction of the nation, provided there is respect for the document that stands for Rule of Law.
In a country where a single person is authorized (by self-acclaimed decree or through an
authority itself lacking competence under the law) to amend the supreme law of the land,
there can be neither democracy nor constitution. One wonders what the Quaid-i-Azam who
was all out for the rule of law for the whole of his life and fought to achieve an independent
country for the Muslims entirely in a constitutional manner would have felt and said of
todays Pakistan?

Major features of rule of law

According to above mentioned definitions there are some important features and principles of
the rule of law:

1. No one above the law

The supremacy of law , which means that all persons (individuals and government) are
subject to law. That people should be ruled by the law and obey it.

2. All are equal in the eyes of the law

All shall be equal before the law: Law must be based on the principles of equality. Equality
means that all the persons must be subjected to the same system of courts and must be
governed by the same law.

3. Laws must be clear and unambiguous

The law should be such that people will be able to be guided by it. The law must be
publicized in a manner that it may be known and understood by ordinary People. It must be
certain in the sense that it must give complete awareness about what is right and what is
wrong so that a person can regulate his/her conduct accordingly.

4. The Principle of Accountability

Everybody must be under the same law and no matter how high a person is, the law must
always be above him. No special privileges and immunities should be given to any special
person. Everybody must be accountable for the violation of law and must be accountable to
the ordinary system of courts.
 5. Fundamental rights must be protected
The fundamental rights of the people must be protected in every situation. Rule of law means
that the law should be based on the concerns of the Human Rights. If a law violates human
rights of the people, then there is no rule of law.
Today these principles are commonly associated with the documents of human rights, English
Magna Carta, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the French
Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen, and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

Rule of law according to the constitution of Pakistan

Supremacy of the law is a fundamental principle of the constitution of Pakistan. The rule of
law in every society plays a vital role in making it prosperous and fair. The rule of law is a
system in which no one, including government, is above the law; where laws protect
fundamental rights; and where justice is accessible to all. The rule of law presupposes the
absence of wide discretionary authority in the rulers, so that they cannot make their own laws
but must govern according to the established laws. Article 25 of the constitution of Pakistan
provides the rule of law as:
(1) All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.
(2) There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex.
(3) Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the
protection of women and children.
According to the article 25, all are equal before the law and no above the high, what authority
they have, they accountable to law. There is no discrimination on the bases of sex, case,
religion and nationality. It protects the fundamental rights of citizens, equal protection for
children and women. State will do best for the protection of their rights.

Main reasons of the weak situation of rule of law in

Pakistan

Why rule of law has become a burning issue in the state of Pakistan? what are the main
problems which affecting the rule of law? There are some reasons which resulted in the very
bad situation of rule of law. I discuss them here with the explanation of the main features of
rule of law.

1. Laws are not much clear and unambiguous

Statutes of Pakistan are much ambiguous not clear. While on the other hand, low literacy rate
is one of the most devastating problem which Pakistan facing today. Laws in Pakistan are
written in such a way that is not accessible to the majority of the population of Pakistan. The
law should be such that people will be able to be guided by it. The laws in Pakistan are not
publicized in a manner that it may be known and understood by ordinary People. There must
be awareness of the existing laws among the masses. Unfortunately, all laws have been
drafted in the English language while the national language is Urdu and state also cannot
concentrate to this. Pakistan has a low literacy rate;Pakistan has become one of the lowest
country of the world in literacy rates. According to (UNESCO), Pakistan has 55 per cent
literacy and Pakistan has got rank of 160th in all over the world.46 Therefore, not many are
aware of existing laws and the rights given to them by constitution.

2. All are not equal before law

No one above the law. The supremacy of law, which means that all persons (individuals and
government) are subject to law. The law must apply to all equally. No one must be seen to be
above the law.
A famous Justice (ret) in Pakistan, named as Fakhrunisa Khokhar, once said that
The rule of law must be applied equally to all persons so as to ensure that all
individuals enjoy equal rights irrespective of race, color, creed or sex. Justice means
equality of all persons in their legal and human rights.
But this is a problem in Pakistan, no doubt that it is written in constitution that all are equal
before law but practice is contrary to law, in last five years, there many cases in Pakistan in
which rich and poor not given equal rights. Rich were always given preferences over poor,
politicians or government rulers on their own motion infringe the rights of common people48.
A recent example is that the present rules has killed some innocent people in Lahore Pakistan,
but no any action had been taken against them and they are still in action in their government
job.

3. No protection of rights of the citizens

Third reason of the weak situation of rule of law in Pakistan is that fundamental rights of the
citizens have not been protected in a manner as needed. Current position of human rights in
Pakistan especially in Karachi, Fata and Balochistan is very bad. The most fundamental
principle of the constitution of Pakistan is that the fundamental rights of the citizens of
Pakistan must be protected at all costs. They provide the protection to the citizens from a lack
of justice or when the justice is delayed, allow people to practice their religions and manage
religious institutions, safeguard property, provide a right to basic education, protection from
discrimination in respect of access to public places, so on and so forth. Nowadays human
situation in Pakistan is extremely serious. According to the international reports of human
rights, all human rights are claimed to be violated in Pakistan. Pakistan is vulnerable on rights
of minorities, the rights of women, the rights of children, independence of judiciary, arbitrary
detention, extra-judicial and summary execution, torture and custodial deaths.49For example
Dr Sher Shah Syed stated that almost25,000 to 30,000 women die every year in Pakistan due
to complications in delivery and some other problems of pregnancy.
 4. No Proper accountability at the public service level
According to rule of law, all individuals who is either citizen or ruler must be held
accountable.Everybody must be accountable for the violation of law and must be accountable
to the ordinary system of courts. But unfortunately, this is also not good in Pakistan, public
officers never been taken into consideration of accountability, there are a lot of cases of
murders, money laundering and corruption, but no action has been taken against them.

5. No accessible and cheaper justice without delay

According to rule of law, accessible and cheaper justice must be available to every citizen.
Citizens must know that they have a legal recourse to a grievance. For this it is important that
justice must not only be done but also seen to be done. This famous principle of
jurisprudence was laid down in a benchmark Not only must the justice be done, it must also
be seen to be done. In Pakistan, a very expensive procedure for justice, a common man does
not have an approach to go to the courts. This is the reason, Pakistan has got 91 position in
this regard out of 102 countries of the world according to rule of law assessment. The survey
also evaluated the dispensation of justice: for civil justice Pakistan was ranked 91 and for
criminal justice 94. Ideally, a justice system must be accessible, affordable, free of corruption
and inordinate delay. But Pakistan does not have a better system of dispensation of civil
justice and criminal justice.

Over view of rule of law in Pakistan

Rule of law means the rule of law and law alone. All arbitrary decisions are prone to quash
the rule of law. An authoritarian order manifests the rule of power instead of the rule of law.
Rule of law entails equality of all the citizens irrespective of sex, caste, creed or color and
ensures justice to all and sundry. If basic human rights of any individual cannot be asserted in
a court, there is no rule of law. No civilized society can exist in absence of a regular system
of justice and therefore independent judiciary consisting of highly merited and conscientious
judges is essential to do justice between different individuals, and especially between society
and the state. Similarly there must be a fearless
In the developing world, the public tends to narrowly interpret the rule of law. In Pakistan,
evidence abounds of how the law is bent or broken, with society suffering as a consequence.
Misappropriation of public money, sale of spurious medicines, issuance of fake degrees, non-
payment of taxes and loans are but a few examples of lawlessness in Pakistan
In a democratic society the rule of law reflects the quality of governance. Weak enforcement
of the law provides space to criminals and terrorists to further their aims. For example in
Karachi, the countrys biggest city, the Supreme Court has taken notice of the existence of
no-go areas. The presence of gangs in the Lyari area is another challenge for the Karachi
police. Such groups patronise extortion, as well as the proliferation of weapons and drugs.
The easy availability of weapons and explosives is another grave issue badly affecting peace
in the country. According to an estimate 20 million illegal weapons pose a serious threat to
national security. However, deweaponisation based on zero tolerance can earn dividends
Our tax laws provide exemptions to certain sectors, such as agriculture. According to a media
report only 0.81 million people filed tax returns during 2011-12, despite the fact that some
3.39 million people possessed National Tax Numbers. Only 0.6pc of the population pays
taxes in Pakistan, as against 4.7pc in India, 58pc in France and 80pc in Canada.
Violence against women and girls including rape, murder through honor killings, acid
attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage continued unabated. In October, the
Pakistan parliament passed a bill seeking to amend penal law provisions allowing the family
of a murder victim to pardon perpetrators, a practice used to evade prosecution that is often
seen in cases of honor where the victim and perpetrator frequently belong to the same
family. The government continued to actively encourage legal and procedural discrimination
against religious minorities by failing to repeal discriminatory laws. Violent attacks on
transgender and intersex women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province surged in 2016, with
unknown assailants frequently targeting those involved in activism.
during 2013, CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry took excessive sue mottos, which burdened the judiciary
with excessive work and increased its inefficiency, more at the lower tier of the judicial
system. This probably was the reason that, in January 2013, Chairman National
Accountability Bureau (NAB) Admiral Fasih Bukhari accused the Pakistani judiciary of
being the most corrupt institution. He said that he had been served with a contempt of court
notice when he refused to induct a person in NAB referred by the SC. Incidents of corruption
and nepotism are rife in the lower judiciary. In addition, the judiciary has been unable to
probe into issues related to the military such as Musharrafs trial. It is a common practice in
Pakistan that the most powerful and wealthy go unpunished even if involved in heinous
crimes. Corruption and office abuse are common phenomena in Pakistan that mostly go
unpunished. Successive governments in Pakistan established parallel judicial structures to
maintain the rule of law at the cost of the separation of powers.
Business Law
Assignment # 1

SUBMITTED TO:
Prof Musharraf Nazir.

SUBMITTED BY:
Gulfam Nawaz (G1F15MBAM0010)
Hammad Ashraf (G1F15MBAM0021)
Zeeshan Ahmad (G1F15MBAM0006)