HYDERABAD: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput has advised the Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) to launch a training programme to encourage its members’ professional growth.

He was speaking at a ceremony, organised by the Bar, after inaugurating a women facilitation centre, a digital scanning centre and a water filtration plant at the District and Sessions Court in the city on Saturday evening.

He said that a lawyer had to do extensive studies to become a professional lawyer of high calibre.

“Lawyers must study new cases and their reported judgements to improve their own legal abilities,” he said.

Asks HDBA to ensure end to wukala gardi as it defames the legal fraternity

Justice Rajput said that he had become the chief justice from this very bar, and noted that Justice Iqbal Kalhoro is the senior puisne judge and Justice Amjad Sahto is also on the bench which is a matter of pride for the bar.

He said that when he took the oath as the chief justice of the SHC, he had realised that a massive improvement was required in the entire judicial landscape of Sindh. “Drinking water facilities were nonexistent in courts while women litigants and jail inmates did not have essential facilities,’’ he recalled. “Now, in line with the vision of the chief justice of Pakistan, measures have been taken and all courts of

Sindh have been organised on modern lines within six months to bring about qualitative infrastructural development.’’

He said filtration plants and solar panels were installed in courts. “No court, right from Karachi to Tharparkar, is now facing electrical loadshedding,” he observed.

He also noted that computer systems do not shut down even during power breakdowns, which do not affect judicial proceedings as well.

The chief justice pointed out that women facilitation centres and separate family rooms were built in courts to enable litigant families to have a conducive environment for reconciliation meetings.

Modern libraries were also set up in courts, he said, and expressed his confidence that these efforts to improve the infrastructure would continue. He promised more infrastructural development.

The SHC chief justice held out the assurance that he would ensure 100pc merit-based appointment of judges in special courts.

“Lawyers must know that no ‘sleeping lawyer’ can become a judge as long as I am the chief justice,” he declared. He said new lawyers must have command over substantive laws like Criminal Procedure Code and Qanoon-i-Shahadat to fight their cases effectively. He said this command would help lawyers shine and prove their eligibility for the positions like the one held by him.

He proposed holding of training workshops and seminars for women lawyers so that they could become familiar with the modern day needs of the legal profession like their Karachi and Lahore counterparts. He said junior lawyers should not lag behind, and suggested that lecture programmes should be held regularly for them.

CJ wants end to ‘wukala gardi’

During his address, Chief Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput expressed his displeasure over some violent incidents witnessed in the court and urged young lawyers to refrain from adopting a wrong path.

“The lawyer friends who have taken a violent path perhaps don’t realise the importance of their black coat and tie. They don’t understand its honour,” he regretted, and remarked: “Wukala gardi is affecting the entire fraternity, and its consequences are borne by lawyers”.

“I am first tendering my apology for using the words wukala gardi, and hope that the HDBA will utilise its energy and resources to stop this wave of wukala gardi,” he said.

He described young lawyers as his children, and said that he would not like his children to take a wrong path in their professional life.

He said that lawyers should make sure that they were not misled by anyone.

He impressed upon the HDBA to play its due role in this regard, and hoped that the violent incidents witnessed in this bar previously did not recur.

Earlier, HDBA President Shakir Nawaz Sharif presented the welcome address.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026