Multiple Frames of Reference: Causes of Delay in Civil Suits in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Delay in civil and criminal suits hold a key role in social and legal research. This study presents a comprehensive explanation of the delay in civil suits’ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 361 respondents were selected through stratified random sampling whose cases were pending before various courts in Swat. For data collection, interview schedule was utilized as a tool owing to illiterate or less educated respondents. The data was analyzed through SPSS by presenting descriptive and inferential statistics. The results reveal that delay has significant associations with various causes including lawyers managing their caseload (P=.004), stronger party compeling weaker through delay (P=.000), frequent transfers of judges (P=0.009), non-appearance of one party (P=.000), more witnesses (P=.001), summons delivery (P=.000) and lesser number of judges (P=.000). It can be argued that delay can be effectively dealt with by implementing procedural reforms that make the process more transparent and less time-consuming.