ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday inaugurated work on the first ever judicial complex of Islamabad at G-11.

Currently, the district courts are operating in small rented buildings in F-8 Markaz where litigants, lawyers and judicial officers usually face problems.

The prime minister performed groundbreaking of the judicial complex which will have 93 courts.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) recently awarded the contract worth Rs1.4 billion to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).

The layout plan of the complex included separate washrooms for men and women, rooms for women and under-18 offenders, canteens and parking space.

CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed briefed the prime minister about the project and the current status of courts operating in F-8 Markaz. He told the prime minister that the CDA would ensure completion of the project in six to eight months.

The PC-1, which was earlier worth Rs6.5, was later revised and the CDA decided to construct a proper building instead of a prefabricated structure.

After the presentation, the prime minister said the courts in F-8 were in poor conditions which showed that the previous leadership of the country had no interest in delivering justice to the people.

In the absence of district courts’ complex, local courts have been operating in small rented buildings in F-8, which according to the city’s master plan is a commercial area.

In the absence of a proper complex, lawyers have constructed their chambers on state land and greenbelts. Earlier this year, on the direction of Islamabad High Court (IHC), the CDA demolished the illegal chambers on a football ground at F-8.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had directed the federal government to take steps for the construction of a judicial complex. Following this, the prime minister directed the CDA to execute the project.

The IHC chief justice besides other judicial and government officers also attended the groundbreaking ceremony.

The prime minister in his speech while addressing the IHC chief justice recalled the lawyers’ struggle of 2007 against then president Pervez Musharraf in the wake of the removal of the chief justice of Pakistan. He said the lawyers’ movement was an apex democratic struggle for the rule of law in the country.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2021