KARACHI, Dec 14: The Sindh High Court Bar Library was on Tuesday equipped with a set of American Legal Discovery Centre.

The US embassy in Pakistan has launched the ALDC project to equip seven law libraries in Pakistan with access to the latest in legal information and help lawyers, scholars and researchers broaden their knowledge of the US legal system.

The $ 30,000-package includes a computer, CD-Roms, American legal software and reference books on law. Addressing a select gathering on the inauguration of the new facility, Justice S. Ali Aslam Jafri, ex officio chairman of the library's managing committee, said the library was established 60 years ago to cater to the needs of judges and lawyers of the then Sindh chief court.

It has 28,600 books, including British Indian law reports. Sindh High Court Bar Association president Akhtar Hussain and library committee secretary M. Zaki Ahmad thanked the US consulate-general for the valuable gift, the worth of which, they said, could not be measured in terms of money alone.

US consul general Douglas C. Rohn said the ALDC set represents a quantum leap in accessibility to information on the US legal system. It contains 23,600 US Supreme Court judgments.

The US, he said, was committed to strengthen the legal systems of developing countries as a strong legal system could alone guarantee political and economic progress.

The ceremony was attended by Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and other SHC judges and senior lawyers, including former judge S A Sarwana, Abul Khair Ansari, Abdus Sattar, Syed Jamil Ahmed, Shamsuddin Khalid Ansari and Moin Azhar Siddiqui.