Legal System of Pakistan

Pakistan is an Islamic Republic Islam is the State religion and the Constitution requires that law with be made by Islam The Country has an area of 310527 Square miles and a population of 220 million official figure on religious demography based on the most recent census taken in 1998 show that approximately 97 percent of the population was Muslim The Majority of Muslims in the country are suni with a shia majority ranking between 10 to 20 percent The penal code incorporate a number of Islamic law provisions The judicial system encompass several different court system with overlapping and sometimes competing jurisdiction that reflect differences in civil, criminal,and Islamic jurisprudence The federal shariat court and the sharia bench of supreme court serve as appellate courts for certain conviction in criminal courts under the Hudood ordinance judges and attorney in these Courts must be Muslims The federal shariat court may overturn any legislation judged to the inconsistent with the tenets of Islam In March 2005 the supreme court chief justice ruled that the federal shariat courthad no jurisdiction to review a decision by a provincial high court even if the federal federal shariat court should have had intial appellate jurisdiction