ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has decided to hire the services of a ‘reputable firm’ for a third-party probe into the construction of the high court building which had cost at least Rs11 billion and took almost a decade to build.

The need for an external party investigation arose when an elevator at the high court malfunctioned last month, stranding over a dozen people, including lawyers, for over 30 minutes. The housing ministry was tasked to probe the incident, but they failed to fix responsibility in the case.

On August 25, the IHC ordered an inquiry and sought a report. Sources told Dawn that an inquiry was conducted by the Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD), the construction firm, and others which highlighted several faults in the elevator.

The report stated that the elevator lacked certain features which were included in the prototype and the given specifications. The report, however, did not identify those who were responsible for the installation and maintenance of the elevator.

In addition to the faulty elevators, the new building of the IHC is plagued by a host of issues, such as an inefficient cooling system, an improper parking lot for the litigants and lawyers.

Similarly, the firefighting system, IT, lightning protection system, and security systems are yet to be installed in the IHC building. According to experts, the building of the IHC is the most expensive one in the capital – it had cost over Rs11 billion.

Inquiry report points out fault in elevator installation, fails to fix responsibility

Interestingly, the construction of the building was questioned at the very outset by a division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah, who is currently a judge of the Supreme Court and IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq.

On March 3, 2015, the bench while hearing the petition of a construction firm that had applied for the contract observed serious violations in the bidding process, and issued a restraining order and stopped awarding the contract to a pre-qualified firm. The bench noted that the contract was awarded in violation of procurement rules. Initially, the judges of the IHC were involved in the decision-making related to the construction of the building.

However, on May 20, 2020, Justice Minallah noted that “Islamabad High Court does not implement the projects itself and does not have the technical expertise to review the materials and costs etc. it is the responsibility of the relevant ministries and departments to always ensure the work is completed economically and timely”.

When the construction work was completed in 2023, IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was supervising the IHC building.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Abul Hasnat Mohammad Zulqarnain, who is currently working as judge of an anti-terrorism court and also assigned the Special Court on Official Secrets Act was deputed to the building to oversee the progress. However, the building was still completed with a number of deficiencies.

Moreover, the boundary wall of the IHC collapsed in August and an inquiry was ordered by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq. Following the collapse of the boundary wall, the Pakistan Public Works Department wrote a letter to the housing ministry, saying that “the filtration plant of the newly constructed Islamabad High Court, is not functioning properly. HVAC System which was 100pc paid to the contractor in June 2022” was out of order. In addition to the above-mentioned issues, the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) which had cost Rs550 million was out of order.

Former IHC chief justice Athar Minallah reportedly while presiding over a meeting last year remarked that the contractor would be sent to jail first and the high court might be shifted later on.

The former chief justice was in favour of sending the case to NAB, but the decision was postponed after relevant quarters expressed apprehensions that the construction would be delayed if the case was remanded to the bureau.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2023