MAPPING JUDICIAL AND LEGAL REFORM LITERATURE IN PAKISTAN (1947–2025): A THEMATIC REVIEW
Abstract
The study found that while judicial reforms is a vast area, yet the bulk of the literature is concerned with the appointment of the judges and the tug of war between the executive and the legislature. The literature on legal reforms with respect to police and law enforcement focus on colonial heritage and how current structure of policing organizations is defined by colonial laws. Police corruption and public perception have also been the focus of researchers in legal reforms. It was also observed that while some papers adopted objective stances, there has been literature that supports one political era over another. Most of the studies adopted the discussion-based approach based on historical analyses. To maintain topical relevance, the paper also includes a brief reform update beyond the reviewed period, summarizing late-2024 to 2025 constitutional restructuring of judicial governance as well as recent digitization and policing-law changes. This situates the mapped literature trends within the most recent reform cycle.
