KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has asked the provincial authorities concerned to allocate funds of Rs18.457 billion for the proposed construction of a judicial complex adjacent to the City Courts.

A letter, written by the Project Director of the Access to Justice Programme SHC, Sohail Ahmed Mashori, to the secretary of the law department, stated that the proposed judicial complex in Karachi will house 125 courtrooms of the subordinate judiciary of the city.

It also said that there was an urgent need for the provision of space and expansion of judicial infrastructure at the City Courts due to the transfer of a large volume of civil suits/cases from the SHC after the promulgation of the Sindh Civil Courts (Amendment) Act, 2025.

Thereafter, a scheme for the construction of 125 new courts at an open plot, presently in use for parking purposes adjacent to the City Courts, has been proposed.

These courts are intended to accommodate the growing judicial workload and will cater to the needs of all four district courts currently housed at the City Courts, including South, East, Central and West, it added.

The letter further stated that the development committee of the SHC has already found the proposed scheme to be feasible and workable, being the only solution to provide emergent space for courts.

Due to the recent enhancement in pecuniary jurisdiction, a significant number of civil cases have been transferred to the subordinate judiciary from the SHC, thereby increasing the burden on the present judicial infrastructure, as the existing facilities are grossly inadequate to support this shift, and there is no alternative space available within the boundaries of the City Courts to set up such additional courts, it added.

The SHC, in the letter sent to the department concerned last month, asked the law department to allocate the requisite funds for the proposed scheme under the non-annual development programme on a top-priority basis so that immediate steps may be initiated for the establishment of the proposed judicial complex.

The proposed construction of the judicial complex in the city also came under discussion during a series of meetings headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan in Karachi during this week.

It was also informed during such meetings that the state-of-the-art proposed judicial complex in Karachi will house 125 fully equipped courts along with all requisite amenities.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025