IHC for shifting district courts to 'purpose-built complex'

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed the federal government to take measures on urgent basis for shifting the District Courts to 'purpose-built complex.'
Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah in a five-page judgement on the deplorable condition of District Courts also ordered that chief commissioner, Islamabad Capital Territory, in consultation with the registrar of this court, will formulate proposals for establishing District Courts in a purpose-built complex and forward the same to the federal government within two weeks.
The office-bearers of Islamabad Bar Council and the High Court and District Bar Associations have filed the petition against the boycott by the judges of the Islamabad District Courts.
The IHC said that Special Secretary Ministry of Interior Aamir Ahmed, as focal person for the federal government, will ensure that the proposals are processed and placed before the federal cabinet, preferably within two weeks. The inspector general of police and the deputy commissioner Islamabad will take appropriate measures for ensuring security of the District Courts. They were directed to submit the report by 12th March, 2019.
The registrar of IHC is directed to send copies of this order to the concerned officials through special messenger. The officers in the last hearing had informed the IHC that the shockingly and deplorable and lamentable state of affairs at District Courts of Islamabad is in their knowledge and that they are in the process of bringing this issue involving immense public importance to the notice of the federal cabinet.
The chief commissioner had informed that the area has been surveyed and that a report highlighting action required to be taken will be submitted before the next date of hearing. The IGP Islamabad said that a detailed report regarding security situation has already been submitted.
The IHC noted that the deplorable conditions prevailing at the District Courts affecting the fundamental rights of the people is acknowledged. The prevailing condition speaks volumes for the apathy of successive governments since 1980 towards the most important tier of the judicial system. It definitely manifests that hitherto, the State through its functionaries, appears to have given lowest priority to the inviolable fundamental right of access to justice.
The appalling working environment and conditions in the District Courts are beyond comprehension and cannot be described in words. It is noted that the litigants and the victims of crime are indeed the actual stakeholders of the justice system and they are the ones who are suffering the most.
The system does not appear to serve them by acknowledging that they are the actual stakeholders. Most of the citizens who seek justice and dispute resolution in the District Courts do not belong to the privileged classes of the society. The embarrassingly deplorable condition in the District Courts is a classic example of denial of the fundamental rights of access to justice to its actual stakeholders and undermining of the rule of law. Simultaneously it manifests failure of the State in fulfilling its obligations under Article 37 of the Constitution to ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice. In the past the District Courts have been a target of terrorist attacks in which innocent citizens including lawyers and a judge have lost their lives.
The order said that the Courts have been established in privately owned building in a commercial area since three decades. What be more ironic than that the landlords of these rented buildings are filing eviction petitions in the same Courts. Not only that the petitions were allowed, execution proceedings are pending in the Courts for its own eviction. The travesty and perversion of the rule of law could have been avoided in the federal capital if the State through its functionaries had acknowledged the importance of district judiciary and the fundamental rights to access to justice and security of life.