World Justice Project Rejects CJP’s Objections to ‘Flawed’ Rule of Law Rankings

The World Justice Project (WJP) has once again asserted that Pakistan’s position on its Rule of Law Index is correct and the methodology behind the ranking system is devised by renowned legal experts from all over the world.

Last year in October, the WJP released the Rule of Law Index 2021, showing Pakistan at the 130^th position out of 139 countries on the list. As for South Asia, Pakistan only fared better than Afghanistan. Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh were ranked above Pakistan in the region.

Earlier this month, the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), a statutory authority headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, had written a letter to the WJP. In the letter, the LJCP had stated that the Rule of Law Index is based on perceptions and the methodology of the ranking system is extremely flawed.

Responding to the LJCP’s letter, Alicia Evangelides, co-Director of WJP’s Rule of Law Index, said that Pakistan’s objections to the Rule of Law Index are unfounded and the WJP will continue using the same methodology for releasing the Rule of Law Index in the coming years.

Alicia noted that the methodology behind the Rule of Law has been formulated with consultation and approval of experts belonging to nearly half a dozen fields of law who are practicing in more than 100 countries.

She clarified that the Rule of Law Index not only aims to highlight the performance of a country’s judiciary but it also focuses on the state of rule of law in other institutions of the country.