Analysis of Access to Information and Legal Rights and Effectiveness of Drc: Realistic Facts From Mardan Khyber Pakhtunkwa Pakistan

: The present study aims to analyze the respondent’s perception regarding dispute resolution council’s effectiveness in rural areas of district Mardan-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)-Pakistan. The main objective of the research is to measure the association between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and DRC effectiveness in the study area. Awareness regarding DRC and legal rights helps illiterate persons to a greater extent than the literate ones . The study suggests policy interventions for government to take part in the creation of awareness among general masses regarding the positive features of DRC. Up-gradation of DRC as an institute with professional, cultural knowledge and skills is required with an integrated drive for effectiveness of DRC through coordination with different stakeholders like community, police, district/tehsil administration, DRC members and locally elected representative etc.

justice to the local people in an efficient way. It is an alternate way to uplift the rights of vulnerable people of the society (Jirgas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2015& Durrani, 2014. During the last five years more than 15000 dispute cases were registered and resolved through DRC mechanism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The mechanism of alternate dispute resolution is based on three gears. Firstly, the victim, secondly the offender and third the community. The whole process of dispute resolution mechanism gathers around the above mentioned three components to provide safety and dignity to all members of the community (Dispute Resolution Council inaugurated 2016& Durrani, 2014. DRCs was reestablished on the basis of Quranic instructions in Surah Al Hujrat to "bring peace among the Muslims as they are brothers unto each other" (Al-Quran chapter 49, verse 09). This practice brought a lot of change in the famous "Thana Culture" and after having positive results, the same was established in the entire districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Most of the people approach these DRCs to resolve their problems instead of time consuming, slow, complicated and expensive procedure of the civil and criminal courts. Record shows that during the span of year (2014-2018) 15487 cases were registered in under DRCs in the various districts of the province, out of which13815 cases were solved in a very pleasant environment. In addition to that, 605 cases were referred to other appropriate forums for further necessary action, and rests of the 1067 cases are still under process. It shows how high the ratio of the provision of justice is and how much the people trusted these councils (Durrani, 2014and Dispute Resolution Council inaugurated 2016, DPO, 2019. Stefan (2009) claims that the history of conflicts and its effective management may be traced back from the early evolution of humans through the holy books along with some other religions. Certain disputes might be resolved through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and adjudication. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is one of a gigantic field in settlement of issues outside the court. In Pakistan it is not a new concept, in fact dispute resolution system in Pakistan is in one or the other way as old as the country itself. Parties have presented disputes to Panchayats or Jirga (Jardine,1996;and Warsi, 2017). DRC is a quick justice delivery system which resolves disputes and conflicts and ensures justice to the local people in an efficient way. It is an alternate way to uplift the rights of vulnerable people of the society (Jirgas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2015& Durrani, 2014. A study carried out in Afghanistan points out that the judicial system indulges in illegal practices like long delays in cases and corruption to resolve a conflicting situation; people want to resolve their issues through mutual cooperation through Jirga or dispute resolution council/local Jirga (Wardak 2002). A research study conducted in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province of Pakistan indicates that to enhance awareness of general masses about the DRC to take benefits by the inhabitant of the province especially of the far flung neglected areas. This can be done through social media campaign, print and electronic media, arranging workshops and seminars. (SDPI, 2019). According to UNDP (2004), The Alternate Dispute Resolution and specifically the DRCs are two easiest conflict resolution strategies that provide economical and speedy procedures to resolve the community dispute on various family and community issues (Ali et al., 2019;and Tanveer, 2017). The main objective of this research is to measure the association between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and DRC effectiveness in the area under study.

Research Methodology:
This Section describes the theoretical background, sample procedure, data collection tools, conceptual framework and the statistical tools which used for the analysis of the collected data. This study is conducted in rural areas of district Mardan. This study aims to determine the relationship between various strategies of dispute and conflict resolution and its efficiency. Dispute resolution councils (DRC) in the rural areas of Mardan are targeted to find their efficiency in terms of dispute and conflict handling and settlement. Cross sectional or one-shot study design is followed because of the time horizon and the study nature as recommended by Babie, (1989). To achieve this purpose, the proposed study was carried out in rural areas of District Mardan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. District Mardan is further subdivided into sub tehsils. These areas are known as "Tehsil Mardan", "Tehsil Katlang", "Tehsil Takht Bhai", and "Tehsil Rustam". Out of which, except "Tehsil Rustam" (where the DRC is not functional) all rural areas of other three tehsils were selected for the purpose of data collection. The present study is limited to district Mardan, there are three major reasons due to which these areas are selected. First, due to the traditional rural social structure of area, secondly due to high rate of registered and resolved cases and thirdly, the researcher's familiarity with the environment of the area. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to portray information from the relevant stakeholders on the study variables. According to the record of District Police Office (DPO-2019) Mardan, a total number of "4894" cases of different nature (Criminal & Civil) were reported during the last five years i.e. from 2014-2018. According to the criteria devised by Sher M. Chaudhry, a sample size of "387" was enough for the above mentioned reported and registered cases (Chaudhry and Kamal, 2009). The sample size was further divided by applying proportional allocation formula to each selected tehsil of district Mardan. Proportional allocation formula for the determination of sample size; Likert scale method was used to measure the different concepts and variables of the study. It is a method applied to measure the attitude and perception of the people . For present study a number of statements describing different aspects of both the dependent and independent variables were designed on the basis of available literature, personal experience and discussion with community members and experts. All the individual responses with respect to all dependent and independent variables statements were then measured on two scale levels i-e yes, no and finally individual score allotted to each response of the statement. The present study embarks on utilizing the Likert scale for the purpose of asserting the attitude of the respondents regarding the phenomena under investigation. In this scale items were evaluated on the basis of respondent's choice under the level of "Yes" and "No". Likert scale is considered as best and appropriate scale for the present study to make sure a high degree of reliability as outlined by (Nichmias and Chava, 1992). Various attitudinal attributes were developed on each variable while taking ideas from the literature and ethno methodology. A statistical number was assigned to each statement in the questionnaire, that show the respondent's perception or attitude about the problem to be discussed under this study, within the circle of Yes and No statements (Kothari, 2006 and2014). In order to remove inconsistencies and ambiguities in the interview schedule is pre-tested. For data collection a team of investigators were trained and led by the researcher himself. Primary data was collected through a well thought out and comprehensive interview schedule, encompassing all the basic aspects of the study (Annex-1). Primary data is collected from those persons whose cases are registered and solved by DRC. The potential respondents for the prevailing study are the persons who are directly involved in dispute cases. It is a measurement norm in social science research, particularly when dealing with attitudinal statement to use at least two items for measuring a single concept or variable. This act for combining two or more items has been referred to as index construction (Nichmais, 1992 andSmith, 1981). It is a statistical procedure being used to certify the items under observation for index representing a single concept and internal consistency. There are two key methods available for carrying out reliability namely "Cronbach's alpha test" and "Split-half reliability test" (Nichmias et al., 1992). The Cronbach's alpha test being more appropriate was used for carrying out reliability in the present study. The collected primary data has been coded and entered in SPSS version 20, for its analysis. Data were analyzed at two levels i.e. "Bi-variate analysis" and "Multivariate analysis".
At Bi-variate and Multi-variate level the dependent and independent variables were cross tabulated to find the association. Furthermore, "Chi-square" (2) and "Gama" statistics was applied on both dependent and independent variables to determine the level of association. Subsequent statistical procedure was adopted to calculate the significance of Chi-square and Gama statistics. Measurement of Chi-Square values were based on procedure proposed by Mary 2009. (Marry, 2009 In this context" "is denotedas the observed number of dispute cases in category " ", while" "denotes the expected number of dispute cases in category" ". The relationship devised by Fisher is as under. (Baily, 1982) Where, 'a,' 'b,' 'c' and 'd' are the individual frequencies of the 2x2 contingency table, and 'N' is the total frequency.

Awareness regarding DRC and legal rights:
Conflict is something that may occur in everyday life on a regular basis. It is important for both parties to be able to negotiate with one another to overcome the situation for the improvement of their life quality. The Legal justice mechanism in Pakistan is still in the stage of reforms, which faces lots of organizational issues and problem. Lack of resources in judiciary system and extremely over -burdened cases directly affects the social life of the rivals. A minor case if submitted to these courts, disrupt the disputant's life socially and economically. To avoid this complex and complicated process of legal justice system the concept of alternate dispute resolution becomes healthy to deliver the quick, speedy and economical justice to secure and improve the social life of the community. In this respect the role of DRC cannot be ignored and overlooked. Mostly, in rural area, like the named area, the people are unaware about the DRC and legal rights. Therefore, the variable of awareness regarding DRC and legal rights was limited to few appropriate attributes to ascertain its association with effectiveness of DRC. Results on experience of people about awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and their association with effectiveness of DRC is given in Table (3) and explained below. The results authenticated that the association of people know about the DRC and effectiveness of Dispute Resolution Council (DRC) was found significant (P=0.006) and positive (γ =0282). Similarly, the association of registration of cases to any other judicial system other than DRC was found highly significant and positive (P=0.000 and γ=0.702) with effectiveness of DRC. Likewise, the association of DRC deal with all sorts of cases/disputes was found significant =0.007) and positive (γ =0.407) with effectiveness of DRC. The concept of DRC was introduced to provide economical, easy and timely justice to the people (disputants). Due to development and advancement in the means of transportation and communication people have awareness regarding the various justice delivery systems including DRC. In most of the civil cases people access the DRC to register their cases for timely response from it. Stefan (2009) claimed that the history of conflicts and its effective management could be traced back from the early evolution of human through the holy books along with some other religions.
Certain disputes might be resolved through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and adjudication. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is one of a gigantic field in settlement of issues outside the court. In Pakistan, it is not a new concept, in fact dispute resolution system in Pakistan is in one or the other way is as old as the country itself. Parties have presented disputes to Panchayats or Jirga (Jardine1996; and Warsi, 2017). DRC is a quick justice delivery system which resolves disputes and conflicts and ensures justice to the local people in an efficient way. It is an alternate way to uplift the rights of vulnerable people of the society (Jirgas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2015& Durrani, 2014. A study has been carried out in Afghanistan point out that the judicial system involved in various illegal ways i.e. long delays in cases and corruption to resolve a conflicting situation; people want to resolve their issues through mutual cooperation through Jirga or dispute resolution council/local Jirga (Wardak 2002). Similarly, the association of case involvement with different stakeholders was found highly significant and positive (P=0.000 and γ = 0.448). Likewise, the association of case decision was found highly significant (P=0.000) and high positive (γ = 0.493) with effectiveness of DRC. Further, the association of feeling that enough information about the legal rights was found significant (P=0.018) and positive (γ =0.402).The study area, rural in nature, various kind of cases/disputes were found between family/relative, friend/ business partner, neighbor, community members etc. To resolve these disputes DRC were taken decision and succeeded to resolve it. On the other hand, these decisions were in favor of someone or against their well and sometime these cases were referring to courts or any other forums were the reason of effectiveness of DRC. Moreover, the results further discloses that awareness about the various justice delivery systems in Pakistan was found non-significantly (P=0.063) and positively (γ =0.280) associated with effectiveness of DRC. In addition, Results further highlighted that the association of awareness the nature of case was found non-significant (P=0.557) and positive (γ =0.148) with effectiveness of DRC. Similarly, the association of nature of case registered with DRC and effectiveness of DRC was found non-significant (P=0.072) and positive (γ = 0.397). In addition, the results further disclosed that need legal information in daily life was found non-significantly (P=0.111) and positively (γ = 0.209) associated with effectiveness of DRC.A research study conducted in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province of Pakistan indicated that to enhance awareness of general masses about the DRC to take benefits by the inhabitant of the province especially the far flung neglected areas. This can be done through social media campaign, print and electronic media, arranging workshops and seminars. (SDPI, 2019).According to UNDP (2004), The Alternate Dispute Resolution and specifically the DRCs are two easiest conflict resolution strategies that provide economical and speedy procedures to resolve the community dispute on various family and community issues (Ali et al., 2009;and Tanveer, 2017).

Association between awareness regarding DRC and Effectiveness of DRC (Controlling gender of the respondents):
Results in Table-4 Show that the association of awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and the effectiveness of DRC in the context of respondents' gender showed positive (γ = 0.584) and highly significant association (P=0.000) for males. Similarly, the association of the above said variables was also positive (γ = 0.750) but non-significant (P=0.393) for female respondents. The value of the level of significance and γ for the entire table show a highly significant and positive association (P= -0.204 & γ =0.586) between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and the effectiveness of DRC for both genders. The results make it evident that the relationship between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and effectiveness of DRC is spurious on the basis of respondent's gender. Thus, the influence of the relationship between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and effectiveness of DRC is more on female compared to males as depicted by higher positive gamma (γ) value. In major part of the world the women are unequal in access to resources and services such as education, health, information that limit their accessibility to acquire justice (Huggins, 2004;Zongwe et al., 2009). In the formal courts usually the peoples are discriminated on the basis of gender. The constitution of DRC's emphasis on gender equality in access to justice. now a days the people attention towards and trust on DRCs has increased as disputes resolution through DRCs are less expensive and speedy as compared to formal courts (Huggins, 2010;Seyler et al., 2010). One of study carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan concluded that the number of cases registered with DRCs increased from 91 in 2016 to 169 in 2017 and the respondents recommended that in order to promote the wide practiced of DRC's there is need of increasing the number of DRCs and also mass awareness about DRCs is needed to aware people specifically in the remote areas to benefit from the services of the DRCs (SDPI, 2019).

Association between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and effectiveness of DRC (controlling literacy status of the respondents)
Results in Table -(5) show that the association of awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and the effectiveness of DRC in the context of literacy status of the respondents' showed negative (γ = -0.631) and significant association (P=0.005) for illiterate. Similarly, the association of the above said variables was negative (γ =-0.501) and highly significant (P=0000) for literate. The value of the level of significance and γ for the entire table show a highly significant and negative association (P=0.000 & γ =-0.586) between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and the effectiveness of DRC in the context of literacy status of the respondents'. The significant chi-square values for both the literate and illiterate respondents declared that the awareness regarding DRC and legal rights is a significant contributor to effectiveness of DRC. Furthermore, the difference in gamma value for both the literate and illiterate respondents declared that the illiterate respondents have slight positive edge over the literate which showed a spurious relationship between the variables based on literacy status of the respondents. Mass awareness is one of the significant factors associated with the effectiveness of dispute resolution council. As it was reported that due to higher literacy rate the dispute resolution council is more in Sri Lanka than the other South Asian countries. As literacy play pivotal role in mass awareness about the alternate dispute resolution mechanisms (Center for Democracy and Governance, 1998).

Association between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and effectiveness of DRC (controlling income Level of the respondents).
Results in Table-6 show that the association of awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and the effectiveness of DRC in the context of level of income of the respondents' showed negative (γ = -0.633) and non-significant association (P=0.290) for respondents income level below Rs-10,000. Similarly, the association of the above said variables was negative (γ =-0.806) and nonsignificant (P=0.052) for income level between Rs-10,001 to 20,000. Moreover, the association between the mentioned variables was negative (γ =-0.429) and significant (P=0.019) for income level between Rs-20,001 to Rs-30,000 and for income level above Rs-30,000 the association was negative (γ = -0.102) and nonsignificant (P=0.122). The value of the level of significance and γ for the entire table show a highly significant and negative association (P=0.000 & γ =-0.586) between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and the effectiveness of DRC in the context of income level of the respondents'. The non-significant chi-square values for all of the income levels except income group (20001-30000) of the respondents portrayed that the awareness regarding DRC and legal rights did not contributed to the effectiveness of DRC. Therefore, the influence of income is non-spurious on the association between awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and effectiveness of DRC. Furthermore, it was depicted from the study that the association of awareness regarding DRC and legal rights and effectiveness of DRC effects the higher income groups less negatively than the low-income groups. It was found that knowledge is the most crucial element of negotiation and access to justice. As compared to rich the poor peoples have limited access to hire technical experts for resolving their disputes as they have limited resources and access to information. Therefore, the poor are in disadvantaged side as compared to the rich one in accessing information and justice (Cole, 2000;Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, 2002).

Conclusion:
This research study aims to investigate the access to information and legal rights associated with the effectiveness of Dispute Resolution Council (DRC) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan. Majority of the respondents accessed to DRC, were male, literate, married and belonged to joint family system. Out of which, majority of them belonged to middle class family and have Agriculture based business as their occupation. Respondents who accessed DRC, their cases were resolved within 04 to 06 months' time. In addition, most of the respondents were aware regarding the new mechanism of DRC. Thus mostly cases of civil nature were registered with DRC, which were resolved through mutual settlement. Most of the cases registered and resolved with DRC were among family members, friends and business partners. Furthermore, various categories of the respondents were based on their gender, monthly income, and literacy status while indexing both independent and dependent variables indicates that effectiveness of DRC is negatively related to awareness regarding DRC and legal rights. Moreover a spurious relation is found between effectiveness of DRC with awareness regarding DRC and legal rights, while controlling gender and literacy status of the disputants. In addition, a non-spurious relation is found between effectiveness of DRC with awareness regarding DRC and legal rights, while controlling monthly income of the disputants. A conceptual framework is designed for this study that comprises of one independent variables (dimensions), three background variables and one dependent variable. These variables are used as the components of effectiveness of DRC for the logical interpretation of the data. This study confirms that these components significantly explains the effectiveness of DRC.

Recommendations:
Government should take part in the creation of awareness among general masses regarding the positive features of DRC by engaging Imams and religious leaders. It is important to create awareness sessions in Masajid (Mosques) and other public places regarding DRC's mechanism, about its cost and time effectiveness, efficiency, fairness and transparency at community level through social mobilization, seminar and workshops. Likewise, the allocation of supplementary budget for staff would be helpful to encourage and enhance their efficiency.