Colonising Law, Transporting Authority, Decolonising Justice: Understanding Pakistan’s Postcolonial Legal System and the Struggle for Decoloniality

Abstract

Pakistan became an independent state in 1947 but its legal system did not change as deeply as its political status. Many of the laws, institutions and legal practices that exist in Pakistan today were adopted or taken from British colonial rule. This article examines legal system of Pakistan through a decolonial lens by focusing on three interconnected ideas: the colonisation of law, the continuation of colonial legal authority after independence and the ongoing struggle for decolonial justice. It argues that colonial law was mainly designed to control society and protect state authority rather than to deliver justice to the people. After independence, Pakistan kept/followed  much of this legal structure which permitted colonial impact to survive in a new political form. However Pakistan has tried/ struggled to change its legal system through constitutional development and new law-making, colonial influence remains apparent in criminal justice, administration, court, and legal education. This article displays that decoloniality of law in Pakistan is not a completed achievement but continued and difficult struggle that needs  institutional and intellectual changing.