KARACHI, April 4: Following verbal orders from the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, Sabihuddin Ahmed, the district and session judge South and Central districts assigned duties to judicial magistrates for their presence in the courts on public holidays.

It was learnt that the demand for special courts on public holidays was raised by the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) during a visit of the CJ SHC to the city courts on February 26. Both the district and session judges of South and Central districts assigned duties to the JM on alternate public holidays. “Initially, the schedule of duties for the time being has been prepared till the end of May,” said a city courts official.

The bar association pointed out that the police were legally bound to produce the accused within 24 hours, but in case of public holidays the accused could not be produced in the courts. KBA Vice President Qadir Khan said this was a long awaited demand of lawyers.

A representative for the bar said it was a common practice of the police to arrest people in bailable cases and keep them in the lock up on the plea of public holidays. He said the arrest of people a day before a public holiday was an extortion method to extract bribes.