Belt-tightening : Sindh High Court says no to luxury cars

Declares new judicial complex a priority.

KARACHI:

The shifting of the city courts complex to a bigger place, preferably the Central Prison, Karachi area, is a top priority, the Registrar of the Sindh High Court (SHC), Abdul Rasool Memon, stated before a division bench of Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa here on Wednesday.

The bench was seized with the hearing of a reference made by a member of the finance department. It was converted into a petition by the SHC. The reference was about providing money to buy 40 1,800 cc cars for the SHC judges, 102 cars for lower court judges and a judicial allowance to the staff of the subordinate judiciary. It also concerned the purchase of a bullet proof car for the chief justice.

With the top brass of the Sindh finance department in attendance, the Registrar said that the judges of the SHC prioritised the new judicial complex foregoing the luxury vehicles.

The SHC is ready to return 11 acres of the city courts complex to the Sindh government and proposes a new judicial complex at the central prison premises. The prison can be moved to the Malir district prison or the government can identify another piece of land appropriate for a new prison, proposed the Registrar.

The bench put off the hearing till June 1, allowing the Sindh government time to consider the proposal and come up with some concrete plan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2011.