ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court Aamer Farooq on Friday put on hold the operation of the district courts on its new premises, though shifting of courts to its newly constructed Courts Complex has almost been completed.

The Judicial Complex was scheduled to be operational on May 22.

An apparent reason for this delay is the ‘hasty’ decision of shifting without knowing the on-ground situation.

Even the President and Secretary of the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) wrote letters to the Chief Justice requesting him to postpone the shifting.

In the letter, IBA President Chaudhry Qaiser Imam and Secretary Rai Asad Naveed Bhatti stated: “We have visited the judicial complex and also brought certain points in the notice of the relevant authorities. We therefore request for postponement of the shifting to new complex.”

The lawyers complained that there was no proper library in the complex, the bar room is also not furnished as yet.

Sources privy to the development said that the district administration was given the task to complete the Judicial Complex within a short span of time.

They said that the contractor was asked to construct 74 courtrooms with attached washrooms for civil judges, senior civil judges, additional district and sessions judges and the district and sessions judges.

He said that the decision makers perhaps forgot the real stakeholders – the litigants – while designing the building.

According to him, there is no proper rest area for the litigants, no space for car parking and there is no arrangement for drinking water for them.

Senior lawyer Raja Inam Ameen Minhas said that the lawyers as well as the litigants were expecting a state of the art judicial complex for the federal capital in 2023.

He lamented that the hurriedly constructed district courts complex is even worse than those built in the remote areas of Punjab or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The cost of the project was Rs1,470 million. The work included construction of 74 courtrooms, proper sitting areas for litigants, a cafeteria, bar room and the press room.

The construction of the building and shifting of the Islamabad District Courts which are surrounded by shopping plazas, hotel and grocery stores and the landscape does not depict a decent and graceful seat of justice, will take about four to five years, it said adding keeping in view the deplorable condition of the present premises of courts and to provide relief to litigants it is imperative to immediately shift courts to a suitable location.

A senior official of the IHC said that the chief justice has taken notice of the lawyers complaints, therefore, the shifting has temporarily been halted.

He expressed hope that these issues will be resolved within a month.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2023