In most cases, a set of circumstances can prompt recourse to multiple reliefs in the realm of civil and criminal proceedings. In such situations the issue of timing may completely obliterate the possibility of pursuing criminal remedies for the same cause of action.
The criminal process is unique. Beyond reasonable doubt is the threshold for the standard of proof, although some of the peculiarities of the criminal process may seem vestigial, but many are highly valued safeguards against the conviction of the innocent, destruction of human dignity or the lawlessness of government officials. In most respects, the uniqueness of a criminal proceeding is not endangered or is barred by law just because a civil proceeding pursuant to the same cause of action takes place at the same time or before the institution of a criminal complaint. Therefore, in theory an aggrieved party is entitled to bring about concurrent civil and criminal legal actions against the accused, however the same can pose as a challenge that a lay person may not be able to overcome in a country like Pakistan.
It is common, that habitual offenders use civil proceedings, as a shield against being investigated under criminal complaints in Pakistan. The government officials tasked with undertaking the same tend to back-off by failing to investigate or even lodge complaints pursuant to the mistaken belief that they may be interfering with a sub-judice matter. The spineless reactions to such predicaments do not only highlight the incompetence and illiteracy that has plagued the civil servants of Pakistan for decades but is also a testament to the corruption embedded in the system.
One may argue that there are other ways of instituting criminal actions through the aid of the Honorable Courts but practically this can be time consuming and costly as one needs to exhaust all other options before availing these alternative routes.
A simple solution to avoid such a predicament is to always initiate criminal proceedings before the civil proceeding as a matter of strategy otherwise prepare to make multiple visits between the designated Police stations and IG offices with chances of reliefs being vestigial.
