AI regulation Pakistan is now a live debate at the highest levels of the country’s legal system. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has made it clear that artificial intelligence (AI) must serve only as a support tool for judges, never as a decision-maker. At the same time, the country’s courts face over 2.2 million pending cases, making the pressure to adopt AI real and urgent. So where does Pakistan actually stand on regulating this fast-moving technology?
The Supreme Court Draws a Clear Line on AI
The key moment came in a case called Ishfaq Ahmed v. Mushtaq Ahmed. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, in a judgment authored by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, endorsed AI as an auxiliary tool for enhancing judicial efficiency without supplanting human reasoning or compromising core principles of justice.
The Court cautioned against over-reliance on AI due to risks like hallucinations, bias, opacity, and erosion of public trust. In plain words, AI can help a judge research and organise information, but the final call must always be a human one.
The judgment acknowledged that the right to a fair trial before a competent, independent, and impartial judge is a fundamental principle of due process, and that AI must not overshadow the core guarantee of judicial autonomy.
“The rule of law must always prevail over the rule of data, with human judges retaining ultimate authority to interpret evolving legal and moral standards,” Justice Shah said.
NJPMC Issues National AI Guidelines for Courts
The Supreme Court’s ruling pushed the policy process forward. On April 29, 2026, the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC) issued the National Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Judicial Institutions, approved in its 57th meeting, providing a clear, principled and nationally consistent framework for the responsible use of AI in judicial institutions.
The judicial guidelines emphasise human oversight, transparency, ethical integrity, privacy, data security and accountability, while permitting AI-assisted applications including case management, legal research, predictive analytics and the preparation of initial summaries and draft materials.
This is a meaningful step. But legal experts say guidelines alone are not enough. Policy guidance alone is insufficient unless supported by enforceable rules, data protection safeguards, judicial training, independent audits and human oversight.
AI Regulation Pakistan Needs More Than Guidelines
The honest picture of AI regulation Pakistan is that policies exist but hard law does not. Pakistan still lacks comprehensive AI-specific legislation and proposed personal data protection legislation remains unenacted.
This regulatory gap is particularly significant as increasingly sophisticated AI systems interact with sensitive areas such as biometric surveillance, criminal records, automated profiling, evidence and judicial decision-making.
Some progress is happening at the national level. On February 9, 2026, Pakistan took a landmark step by formally adopting the Islamabad AI Declaration on sovereign, responsible, and capability-driven artificial intelligence, which defines the national stance on AI and marks a transition from policy to execution. And in June 2026, Pakistan published a draft National Data Governance Policy that proposes a regulatory framework for AI, a slow but essential step.
But researchers are calling for much more. Parliament should enact a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Act, and the proposed legislation envisions establishing a Pakistan Artificial Intelligence Authority with fixed tenure and ring-fenced funding, along with an Artificial Intelligence Tribunal for grave penalties and contested compensation.
The JudgeGPT Experiment Shows What AI Can Do
While the debate continues, a real-world trial gave Pakistan’s courts a glimpse of AI’s potential. A tool called JudgeGPT was built specifically for Pakistani judges, after commercial AI tools performed poorly on local legal queries. A 6.3 percent increase in case resolution sounds modest, but the researchers calculated that a trained judge was resolving 38.5 more cases a month than the baseline, translating to roughly US $38.50 saved in judicial costs for every dollar spent running the tool.
That is a strong result for a system drowning in backlogs. Pakistan’s heavily backlogged courts, with over 2.2 million pending cases in 2025, may see some relief as AI is introduced as an assistive tool rather than a substitute for judicial decision-making.
However, the trial also found a warning sign. Roughly a fifth of participants’ prompts given to JudgeGPT involved what the researchers call “substantial AI delegation”, asking the tool what the best decision is, to produce legal reasoning or write opinions with little input from the judge. This is exactly the kind of over-reliance the Supreme Court warned against.
Risks That Affect Ordinary Pakistanis
This is not just a concern for lawyers and judges. The way Pakistan builds its AI rules will touch ordinary citizens directly. Every time a Pakistani institution integrates a foreign AI system, it exports personal information such as financial records, health data or behavioural patterns into jurisdictions beyond its control. With no enforceable data protection laws, this is not integration but extraction.
AI bias risks eroding the constitutional right to equality. The Shirin Munir judgment condemned selective enforcement that protected less meritorious boys over competent women as unconstitutional, and algorithmic systems trained on such precedents could entrench, rather than remedy, discrimination.
The problem of “black box” AI is real too. Courts are constitutionally obligated to provide reasoned judgments, yet many AI tools function through black box processes whose internal reasoning remains inaccessible even to their operators.
What Needs to Happen Next
Experts and researchers broadly agree on the road ahead. Pakistan must move from soft guidelines to real law. Pakistan should adopt AI gradually, beginning with administrative and low-risk functions, while preserving the judge as the final constitutional decision-maker.
Pakistan now needs institutional architecture behind its April guidelines. The NJPMC should establish a permanent Judicial AI Unit under the National Judicial Automation Committee and begin with controlled pilots in selected district courts, one High Court, and the Supreme Court registry.
Data sovereignty also matters. A sovereign judicial data environment is equally important, and sensitive records should not casually pass through public AI services.
For context, the EU’s AI Act classifies systems by risk before public deployment, and Singapore mandates auditability and accountability. Pakistan needs its own version of these rules, tailored to its own courts, its own languages, and its own legal traditions. The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan has published the full text of the April 2026 judicial AI guidelines for anyone who wants to read the detail. Internationally, artificial intelligence regulation is still evolving worldwide, and Pakistan has a chance to learn from early movers before locking in its own framework.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Pakistan’s Supreme Court say about AI in courts?
The Supreme Court ruled that AI must act only as an auxiliary tool for judges. It must never replace human judgment. The court directed the NJPMC and LJCP to create clear guidelines on how AI can and cannot be used in Pakistani courts.
What are the NJPMC’s national AI guidelines for courts?
The National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee issued guidelines on April 29, 2026 that allow AI for tasks like case management, legal research, and drafting initial summaries. But all final decisions must stay with human judges. The guidelines also require transparency, human oversight, and data security.
Does Pakistan have an AI law?
Not yet. Pakistan has a National AI Policy (2025), the Islamabad AI Declaration (February 2026), and judicial guidelines (April 2026). A draft data governance policy was released in June 2026. But a formal AI Act and a Personal Data Protection Act have not been passed into law yet.
How does the AI regulation debate affect ordinary Pakistanis?
Without strong AI rules, personal data shared with foreign AI platforms has no legal protection in Pakistan. Biased algorithms could affect court outcomes, credit decisions, and access to services. Getting the rules right matters for every citizen, not just lawyers and tech workers.
