Hi karlthelawyer. I am not a lawyer myself but I took part in the 2007-08 lawyers' movement as a democracy activist.

In my opinion, our legal system has become only "relatively" better but not good enough. There is not short answer as to why not, but it is a combination of other complex problems which create hindrances in the access to justice in Pakistan. For example, Pakistan lacks a general education of legal rights and responsibilities. That couldn't change much in last 5 years. The Supreme and the High Courts are resourceful but in many cases, the subordinate courts (at district and magistrate level) are acutely short of even the basic resources like computing, evidence corroboration or even security. A judge can't really adjudicate under fear. Then, the whole system of justice delivery also depends upon the supporting institutions like police and property registration authorities etc, and those are also massively under-resourced. Due to lack of indubitable property registration databases, most of courts' time is wasted in fruitless litigation which goes on for decades.

Whereas, in criminal cases, police struggles to give productive support as for example, in the district of Attock near the capital, the total strength of just over 1200 police personnel, with only 14 computers, 31 vehicles (some not working) and no fuel provided from the state to serve a population of about 2 million. Other statistics of their resources make us realise what a miracle it is that police are maintaining peace (as much as they can) in Pakistan. Besides, in many cases, no legislation exists. For example, Pakistan has no proper anti-terrorism law (though there are special anti-terrorist courts who have their own weaknesses).

The improvements that I see are that good lawyers are not afraid of standing up for what is right, and the judges, especially in superior courts are ready to stand their ground to protect their integrity. So the direction is right even if the progress is slow. These are not systemic improvements anyway, these are just behavioral changes.

Overall, I think the struggle for preserving the rule of law is more of a multi-marathon. This struggle will continue for many years to come and the solutions will have to come as a part of comprehensive development plan for the region. Education, economy, terrorism (and the war of/on terrorism), energy crisis, foreign relations (especially with India, Iran and the US), all affect the access to justice in Pakistan, directly or indirectly.

Here's a very interesting video about a lawyer's work in Pakistan: http://youtu.be/b06_m1uxWJw