IHC likely to be shifted to Red Zone

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is all set to allocate a plot for the construction of Islamabad High Court (IHC) building in the Red Zone and the documentation process in this regard is in process, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday. A senior official at the CDA told Pakistan Today that the civic body had been asked to allot a 30-kanal plot situated near the Supreme Court building in the Red Zone.
“The planning wing has moved a summary to the CDA Board, which will take up the matter in its next meeting,” said a senior official.
The proposed piece of land is situated adjacent to the Foreign Office and Radio Pakistan buildings at the Constitution Avenue.
When contacted, Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHBA) President Chaudhry Ashraf Gujjar said Chief Justice of Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had also told a delegation of IHCBA, which called on him on Thursday, that the CDA would allot a plot to IHC near Foreign Office building.
It is to mention here that it had been a demand of lawyers’ community to shift the IHC somewhere closer to the Supreme Court building so as to facilitate both litigants and the legal practitioners.
The IHCBA president said that after the allotment of the said plot, the construction work would be completed within two years. Currently, the IHC is housed in the buildings of Islamabad District Courts in Sector-G/9, which were constructed for the district and sessions judges’ courts in 2007. The district courts, however, could not be shifted there so far from F/8 Markaz.
The district and session judges’ courts are still functioning in a busy market area of Sector F/8 Markaz, which is very vulnerable to security threats and where thousands of litigants visit daily.
These courts present a muddled look with a large number of lawyers’ chambers, restaurants, refreshment centres and makeshift offices of the stamp paper sellers. It is relevant to mention here that a bombing incident in 2007 had left several people killed.