Effectiveness of Dispute Resolution Councils in Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Study of Selected Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Background: Dispute resolution is the process through which conflicts, misunderstandings are handled. It is an effective process for smooth functioning of any sort of organization. It further helps in maintain peace in the society as well as organization.
 Objective: This study seeks to appraise and evaluate the effectiveness of Dispute Resolution Councils (DRCs) in the select districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
 Methods: The effectiveness of ADR forums is gauged through magnitude of satisfaction and trust of beneficiaries accessing its services as well as affordability and timeliness of dispensation of justice to them.
 Findings: It was found that DRCs have become highly consequential to the peacemaking due to impartial setup and the provision of equal opportunity to parties involved in any case. 
 Conclusion: Despite the overall success of DRCs, they are still affected by problems such a poor documentation, infrastructure, lack of training and most importantly the absence of any enforcement mechanism of their decisions.
 Implication: This study puts forth various reforms that may include the standardization of documents, provision of sufficient capital and adequate infrastructure, and auguring the role of these avenues to strengthen the implementation of their decisions.

Factors influencing the Effectiveness of Dispute Resolution Council in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan

“…Therefore, the DRC must not only more efficiently deal the cases but also made efforts to deal with the constraints due to which the cases have not been resolved under the forum. Literature in this regard shows that DRC is working well in the various districts of the province and majority of the cases referred to DRC have been resolved (Manzoor et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2022a;Kahn et al, 2022b). Among the various types of disputes, property issues was the most resolved (62%), followed by money borrowing (60%), agricultural land (57%), and family issues (57%).…”

“…Moreover, for the attainment of mass level awareness, the council members suggested print, electronic, and social media. These techniques are largely used for mass level awareness and has been proved effective in the literature (Manzoor et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2022b). Moreover, Manzoor et al, (2020) in a study conducted in the province suggested that DRC must be massively introduced so that more number of people may be benefited from the council.…”

“…Dispute resolution refers to the process of handling conflicts, disagreements, or misunderstandings which is required for the peace and harmony in a community, society, and nation (Khan et al, 2022b). This peace is further required for the political, social, and economic development of a country (Manzoor et al, 2020). Therefore, some type of mechanism exists in every society to resolve disputes and it can be seen throughout the mankind history ().…”

“…serve the justice locally (Khan et al, 2022b). The council has been established by the provincial police department to deal with the local petty issues so that the people may find inexpensive, affordable, flexible, transparent, less time consuming, less tired some and local justice system (Manzoor et al, 2020). The system was launched in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and is currently operating.…”

“…DRC is the alternate mechanism for dispute resolution found by the people on their door step. This is very Various studies has been conducted to highlight the functioning and effectiveness of the council in the province (Khan, 2017;Shah, 2019;Manzoor et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2022a;Khan et al, 2022b). All these studies have focused on the functionality, mechanism and effectiveness of the DRC.…”