The Peshawar High Court has decided to shut down all courts in the province until March 28, in light of the fast-spreading Covid-19. According to the notification, the following arrangements have been made to ensure that important matters are taken care of:

• Only two single benches will hear "civil and criminal urgent matters"

• At a district level, one sessions court and one civil judge will hear civil and criminal cases of an urgent nature on a rotational basis

• Members of staff who are above 50 years of age or suffer from diabetes or heart ailments will be on vacation. So will female members of staff.

• High court judges and staff of grade 17 and above will donate five days' salary, while members of staff of this court, benches and district judiciary will donate one day's salary to KP relief fund

• Essential staff will continue to come to courts but there will be no more than one official in one office/wing