Channel 4 [UK TV station] screened Lahore Law, a three-part...

Channel 4 [UK TV station] screened Lahore Law, a three-part documentary filmed in Pakistan's Civil and Criminal Courts. These courts are overstretched and bureaucratic, with the justice rough and ready.
The Times reviewer, David Chater, wrote: "Watching a real murder trial take place in Pakistan makes strange and uncomfortable viewing. The legal system operates with a combination of chaos and due process, and the stakes are as high as they can get - last year [2001], 749 people were sentenced to death. The defendant is Babar Islam, a devout and uneducated man accused of murdering a holy man at the shrine of Amarsadhu. A spectacularly fat lawyer is paid £1,500 to prosecute the man, whereas the state-appointed defence lawyer - untrained in criminal law - gets £62.50. There is no jury, and everyone stands around the judge's table, with the proceedings recorded on ancient typewriter. "God willing," the accused tells his wife, 'the truth will be exposed'."