Topic > Telecommunications: Pakistan's Answer to Legal Illiteracy

Despite depriving a faction of the population of their fundamental rights, the issue of legal illiteracy is commonly overshadowed by more pressing concerns about the justice system; however, the difficulty posed is perhaps equally onerous. The level of abandonment of conventional solutions ultimately leads to further regression. However, what if we could mobilize more unconventional means to increase legal literacy, in order to counter the threat to civil justice in Pakistan? If desired outcomes include increased access to justice and legal literacy, then telecommunications-based solutions are the tools of the trade. The process, however, is to identify the impact of legal illiteracy on the current civil justice framework in Pakistan. According to the World Justice Project's rule of law index for 2018-2019, Pakistan's civil justice framework ranked 118th out of 126 countries considered. Considering parameters such as “accessibility and affordability” as well as “lack of discrimination and corruption” within the civil justice system, Pakistan received an overall score of 0.38 out of 1.00 for civil justice. The "accessibility and convenience" parameter of civil justice best illustrates the trend; so, despite a slight improvement compared to 2017-2018 data, Pakistan remained below the regional average and comparable income scores. Apparently, despite minimal progress, the state of civil justice in Pakistan remains largely stagnant. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay In 2017, the Rule of Law Index Expanded General Population Survey illustrated alarming rates of inaccessible civil justice within five urban centers of Pakistan; so 82 percent of the sample population said they had had legal difficulties in the two years preceding the survey. Disconcertingly, 86% of those who got into legal trouble took no legal action. Why then, despite the significant volume of legal difficulties faced, have legal avenues been largely neglected? The answer could be twofold; the main factors are (i) the general state of literacy and (ii) the lack of legal literacy among both literate and illiterate demographics. Pakistan's latest economic survey reported a nationwide literacy rate of 62.3% during 2017-2018. Data suggests that, by default, 37.7% of the population has been rendered legally vulnerable due to basic illiteracy alone. Combined with archaic and inadequate direction regarding dissemination of laws to the public, much of the literate demographic may be excluded due to lack of knowledge of relevant legal provisions. Additional constraints come into play regarding digital literacy; an aspect that considers the knowledge and skills necessary to interact with our technological ecosystem. In 2019, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Inclusive Internet Index ranked Pakistan 77th out of 100 countries considered globally for national internet inclusion. The Internet Index mainly considered four parameters: "availability", "accessibility", "relevance" and "readiness". Despite the largely negative image of digital literacy portrayed by the Internet Index, the widespread use of mobile phones in cities and villages, for streaming?