ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Thursday gave one month deadline to the government to commence construction work of district courts complex and also sought update on lawyers’ complex.

Justice Minallah was hearing the case related to lawyers storming of IHC on Feb 8.

During the hearing, IHC chief justice inquired about the progress on the district courts complex. He remarked that though it was the domain of the executive, the court had to intervene since this was the matter of fundamental rights.

Secretaries interior, law and justice and chief commissioner Islamabad appeared before the court.

Secretary Law and Justice Raja Naeem Akbar informed the court that the Planning Commission would approve PC-I of the project in a day.

Secretary interior informed the court that Capital Development Authority (CDA) had started construction of Litigants’ Complex with the cost of Rs1.5 billion.

The court directed to constitute a committee comprising interior, planning and law and justice secretaries to coordinate for expeditious completion of the district courts complex.

Justice Minallah remarked that the court had confidence in the prime minister and the federal cabinet. He expressed the hope that the elected representative will address the litigants’ problems.

He pointed out that the special courts were working under the administrative control of the law ministry. The staff of these courts was appointed by the law ministry and they did not cooperate with the judges.

Lawyers Strike

The lawyers observed strike and partially boycotted the proceeding of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the district courts. However, there was no strike of lawyers was seen in the Supreme Court.

Islamabad High Court Bar Association on the instruction of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) issued the strike call and warned the lawyers against attending the courts proceeding on Thursday.

IHC Bar Association Secretary Sohail Akbar Chaudhry was monitoring the lawyers appearance in the courtrooms. IHCBA’s clerks were noting down names of the lawyers and forwarded these to the secretary bar association.

According to Mr Chaudhry, names of the lawyers who did not observe the strike and attended the courts proceeding despite a boycott call would be sent to the Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) and Pakistan Bar Council for appropriate disciplinary proceedings.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2021