KARACHI: The Sindh High Court was informed on Thursday that 246 out of 503 closed-circuit television cameras installed on the City Courts premises were dysfunctional and three scanning machines were also out of order.

A report filed by senior superintendent of police concerned also said that three delta barriers at as many entry points at the City Courts have not been functioning and one out of eight walkthrough gates was also found out-of-use and needed urgent repairing or replacement.

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation also placed a report before the SHC about encroachments on the premises of district courts, parking issues and maintaining the surrounding roads.

A two-judge constitutional bench of the SHC comprising Justice Agha Faisal and Justice Abdul Mobeen Lakho was hearing a petition seeking establishment of a centralised judicial complex in the city and upgradation of judicial infrastructure.

Earlier, a committee was formed on the recommendation of the bench under the chairmanship of advocate general of Sindh to chalk out a plan for subject issues and focal persons of chief secretary of Sindh, registrar of SHC, inspector general of Sindh police, Karachi mayor and representatives of legal fraternity were also made part of the committee.

In its first meeting, the committee had formulated a short-term roadmap which can be given effect immediately within the current fiscal year and other points will also come under consideration to keep the roadmap going forward.

At the outset of hearing on Thursday, a provincial law officer filed a statement along with minutes of the inaugural meeting of the committee held on May 6 and various reports prepared by KMC, SSP City and SSP Traffic concerned.

The bench in its order noted that such reports demonstrated the security, parking and encroachments issues at the City Courts as well as proposed steps including the issue of touts and beggars.

However, it expressed resentment as the focal person of registrar of SHC did not file a report and said that apparent delay in such regard by the functionary was noted with regret.

The bench also directed the registrar to ensure that the report was submitted on or before the next hearing with advance copy to the parties.

Adjourning the hearing till June 13, it further asked the registrar of the SHC that he may also consider whether it may be expedient to appoint another focal person.

The SSP City in his report said that there were 503 CCTV cameras installed at the City Courts and only 257 were operational while 246 were not working.

The access to such cameras is mainly at the disposed of the SHC as City Courts police station has access to only 16 cameras installed at three entrances gates, it added.

The police report also recommended that non-functional CCTV cameras be made operational and access may be given to the police station concerned for foolproof security to avoid any law & order situation.

It further stated that baggage scanning machines installed at three main entry points have also been out of order and three delta barriers, used to stop unlawful entries of vehicles at main gates, were not working and additionally there was no structural steel one-way barrier at entrance/exit points which allowed many unauthorised vehicles to enter the court premises.

The revolting exit gates, installed at two main entrances are also not working properly and have enough space for allowing illegal entries and there are many beggars, sellers /vendors of books, coats and other items and they were selling with permission of Karachi Bar Association which was a severe threat and must be discouraged.

The KMC in its report also said that there were soft encroachments on the premises of courts including stalls of stamp vendors, oath commissioners, shops, cabins, counters and huts, etc.

There is also double and triple line of cars and bikes parking on footpath and service road, the report said and asked the chief engineer judicial works Sindh to provide site/master plan of City Courts and formulate a plan to removal encroachments in coordination with anti-encroachment department of KMC.

Advocate Zia Awan had filed the petition in January and asserted that there were various flaws in the judicial infrastructure of the city, which needed to be addressed to ensure efficient and swift delivery of justice to the people.

The petitioner also contended that there were several critical issues within the city’s judicial infrastructure and functions, including poorly distributed courts, rampant corruption, slow & ineffective bailiff system, pathetic security arrangement, lack of fire safety equipment, insufficient restrooms and inadequate provisions for differently-abled individuals.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2025