Islamabad Bar Council opposes temporary relocation of kutchery

Lawyers demand dedicated judicial complex in capital

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) on Monday approved a unanimous resolution against the law ministry’s suggestion to shift the Sector F-8 District Courts, commonly known as district kutcheri, temporarily to another building.

The IBC, in its meeting on Monday, resolved that the district courts should not be moved anywhere else except for the judicial complex, which has yet to be completed in the federal capital.

Qazi Rafaiuddin Babar convened the meeting and it was attended by members of the council including Haroonur Rasheed, Javed Saleem, Sajjad Afzal, and others.

The bar, in its resolution, took strong exception to relocate the district kutcheri, even temporarily. Bar members warned of resisting any such move.

Citing the reason for their opposition to the temporary relocation, IBC officials said that it will not only cause difficulties to litigants but it will create administrative problems for the judiciary as well.

Therefore, they demanded the construction of a dedicated judicial complex at the earliest and move the district courts there permanently.

Bar members were of the view that the problems faced by the Islamabad judiciary will not be solved until the judicial complex is built in the federal capital.

As an alternative, they suggested that the government should rent out a building near the Sector F-8 district kutcheri if it wanted to establish additional courts instead of relocating to an entirely new location.

Encroachment issue

Many lawyers have encroached upon football field next to the Sector F-8 kutcheri. Even after prolonged litigation, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had failed to evict the lawyers who had gone on strike for 40 days against the authority’s anti-encroachment operation.

The Islamabad High Court hearing a petition in March 2019 had directed CDA to take legal action against encroachment on the football ground adjacent to the Sector F-8 kutchery.

Police too have termed the kutchery a security risk. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2020.