ISLAMABAD, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 12th May, 2026) Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb on Monday said alternative dispute resolution and mediation had become the need of the hour in order to reduce the increasing burden of court cases in Pakistan.
The Honourable Judge of the Supreme Court was addressing the AOI x ICDRL Peacemakers Community (AIPC)’s launch event held here at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), Islamabad, that brought together judges, lawyers, mediators, ADR practitioners, alumni, students, and institutional partners to discuss the future of dispute resolution in Pakistan.
In his keynote address, Justice Aurangzeb called the need for encouraging the concept of mediation and arbitration and added that at present, a total of about 1.82 million cases are pending in the courts across the country, including the Supreme Court and High Courts, which is a huge challenge considering the current number of judges.
The SC judge stressed the need for mediators to be referred more cases, saying for that, the courts have to be willing to refer cases to mediation.
The judge said the decision had been made to train more judges, as well as law graduate officials in the high courts and the Supreme Court, as mediators to encourage parties to opt for mediation, with the officials conducting mediation within their existing pay scales.
Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb said the Supreme Court was in the process of establishing a court-annexed mediation centre with financial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme.
He said the Supreme Court currently had two accredited and trained mediators, while the law ministry was set to launch a programme on Monday to train more mediators.
The judge expressed hope that the number of trained mediators would rise to at least a dozen by the end of the year so that parties unable to afford mediation services could be referred to the mediation centre at the Supreme Court, where mediation would be conducted free of cost.
The event also marked the launch of the upcoming competitions on negotiation and mediation, as well as the official launch of the Peacemakers Community.
“By the end of this year, I hope to take the number to at least a dozen, so that parties who cannot afford to pay for the mediators are referred to the mediation centre, which will be housed in the Supreme Court […] for mediation to be conducted free of cost,” the judge said.
He further noted, “When being responsible for choosing lawyers to be trained as mediators, I had to bear in mind that they had to represent the entire spectrum of law, ranging from banking law, service law, civil disputes, land disputes and so on and so forth.”
Justice Aurangzeb observed that there was no shortage of mediators in Pakistan, adding that they were “experts in different fields”.
“You cannot be expecting mediators to work pro bono,” he said, emphasising that mediation was a “very lucrative part of the profession”.
However, Justice Aurangzeb also warned against the “counterproductive effect” of referring cases to mediation, with mediation becoming a “time-consuming device”.
He contended, “The experiment of mandatory mediation can start off with a few laws.”
While asserting that mediations will be more common in Pakistan, Justice Aurangzeb said, “But we are at the nascent stage. Do remember: our journey started in 2022. In Turkiye, it started in 2013 and by 2022, they had three million cases decided through a process of mediation.”
He highlighted that the figure for Turkiye was now at a staggering 9m. “Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms have to be adopted to address this issue,” he asserted.
Speaking about the SC’s planned mediation centre, he recalled, “The chief justice was very reluctant to give me the best space in the SC for this purpose. The mediation centre has to be nice, it has to have a nice view. People have to come there and be comfortable.
