Law – A Neglected but Necessary Element of Smart Governance: A Case Study of South Asia

Several elements come together to define a smart city. These are the environment, governance, economy, living, mobility, and the people. This paper (i) reviews existing components of ‘smart governance,’ (ii) highlights the absence of ‘legal adjudication’ as a fundamental gap within components suggested in the literature, (iii) proposes three metrics (a) court disposition time, (b) clearance rate, and (c) the number of cases pending adjudication as a criterion for assessing the state of legal adjudication for any country. Lastly, the paper (iv) compares South Asian countries, particularly Pakistan, with other countries of the world based on these proposed measures. The paper concluded that timely, fair legal adjudication is vital for smart cities, highlighting South Asian governments’ lack of data and urgency in justice delivery.