Your cousin borrowed money for his shop and will not return it. You think about court, then hear it can take years and cost more than the money. Someone tells you to try a lok adalat. What is that? Does Pakistan have one?
Lok means people. Adalat means court. Lok adalat is a people's court. India runs it under the legal services authority, and one session there in December 2024 settled over 4 million cases in a single day. Pakistan has no law with that name, but the machinery for the same idea is here, and the courts are pushing people toward it hard.
What is alternative dispute resolution?
ADR stands for alternative dispute resolution. It means settling a dispute outside the full court process. The main forms are mediation, arbitration and conciliation. A neutral person helps both sides talk and reach a settlement.
The courts need the help. Pakistan has a backlog of more than 2.2 million pending cases and only about 4,300 judges. A civil suit can take 15 years. ADR exists so your dispute does not have to join that line.
What does the ADR Act 2017 say?
In 2017, Parliament passed the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act 2017. It applies to the Islamabad Capital Territory.
On the first date after all parties appear, the court must send every civil matter listed in the Schedule to ADR. The list covers landlord tenant disputes, preemption, land and property disputes, commercial and contractual cases, banking, insurance, personal injury and more. The court can skip ADR only if a party refuses, the court sees no chance of settlement, or the case turns on an intricate question of law.
The case goes to a neutral from a district panel. The panel has lawyers with seven or more years of practice, retired judges, retired civil servants, ulema, jurists and technocrats. If one side is a woman, the neutral should preferably be a woman.
The timelines are short. A mediator must finish within 30 days, extendable by 15. An arbitrator gets 60 days, extendable by 30. If you stall, the neutral can make you pay the other side's costs.
If both sides settle, the neutral records the settlement. The court pronounces judgment and passes a decree in those terms. There is no appeal against that decree.
If the talks fail, nothing is lost. The case continues from the exact stage where it left off. You can check your court case status online in Pakistan to follow it.
The Act also covers compoundable offences. For these, under section 345 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a neutral can help the sides settle. If they do, the accused is discharged.
ADR in the provinces of Pakistan
Islamabad is not alone. Punjab's Alternate Dispute Resolution Act 2019 makes the court refer Schedule I cases to ADR within 30 days of the parties appearing. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa passed its own ADR Act in 2020. Balochistan followed in 2022, with rules in 2023.
Sindh took a different route. The Code of Civil Procedure (Sindh Amendment) Act 2018 brought court annexed mediation into civil cases. Sindh courts work with centres like the Musaliha International Centre in Karachi.
Across the country, section 89-A of the Code of Civil Procedure lets a court refer a dispute to arbitration, mediation or conciliation. The ADR Act 2017 repeals it for Islamabad.
Why courts in Pakistan push mediation
The push is not only from statutes. The Supreme Court opened its first Court Annexed Mediation Centre in August 2026. The Lahore High Court has called mediation a constitutional imperative. In a family case, the Supreme Court sent the parties to an accredited mediator and the dispute settled in five weeks.
The Supreme Court has called mediation a right, not a privilege. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has urged courts to push mediation instead of grabbing injunctions first.
One ADR centre in Karachi reported a 78 percent settlement rate in its first six months.
How to use ADR in your own case
If your dispute falls in the ADR Schedule and your case is in Islamabad, expect the court to send it to mediation after the first hearing. You can object, but think before you do. The process is short and private, and the settlement becomes a decree you can enforce.
You can also choose ADR before filing. Apply to the court or to a notified ADR centre. In Islamabad these include the Indus Mediation and Dispute Resolution Centre and the Musaliha International Centre. The Ministry of Law and Justice keeps the list.
The steps are simple. Attend the sessions. Bring your papers. Talk openly. A settlement is signed, witnessed and sent to the court, which passes a decree in those terms. If you do not settle, the case goes back to court from where it stopped. If you do end up filing, here is how to file a civil case in Pakistan.
Fees are shared by the parties as they agree, or fixed by the court. Mediation sessions are confidential. What you say in them cannot be used against you in court later.
For family disputes, there is an older homegrown version of this idea. The Arbitration Council under the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 handles divorce notices and tries reconciliation first. Read how it fits into how divorce works in Pakistan.
What it means for you in Pakistan
Pakistan has no law named after the lok adalat. But the machinery is real, growing and court backed. Mediation also fits the culture. Communities have long used jirgas and panchayats. The Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa called mediation a structured, constitutionally safeguarded evolution of the jirga tradition. Mediation keeps the instinct and adds safeguards: trained neutrals, confidentiality, and a decree a court will enforce.
Proposed amendments to the ADR Act 2017 would make pre trial mediation mandatory for specified disputes. Pakistan has also signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation.
For smaller money disputes, the small claims courts in Pakistan are another fast route.
If someone tells you to try a lok adalat in Pakistan, the honest translation is this: ask about ADR and mediation. The timelines are weeks, not years. And if it fails, your day in court is still waiting for you.
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