After irregularities surfaced back in 2015, a new contract was awarded to Habib Rafique (Pvt) ltd.
Since its groundbreaking ceremony on November 5, 2012, by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, work on the site of new building of Islamabad High Court in red zone, sector G-5, is still far from completion even after four years.
Originally, the construction work was to be completed in year 2015, but in April, 2015, the allegations related to a lack of transparency in the pre-qualification of the contractor firm “Interhome” came forward, calling the award of contract not in accordance with PEPRA rules, which resulted in cancellation of the contract.
The whole project will cost more than 2.5 billion rupees and, once completed, it will span on 5 acres land. The funds for the project are provided by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, which is the client department.
The contract of the whole project has been given to Messrs Habib Rafique (Pvt) Ltd, Lahore; consultancy services are provided by Messrs The Architects, Karachi. The executing agency in this regard is Pakistan Public Works Department.
As reported in this paper back in August of this year, Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) Phase-II, a project of similar nature, inaugurated back in November, 2013, by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remains vacant till this date, and minor works are still underway on the site.
The expansion of the FJA had cost 1.25 billion rupees to the ministry and was meant to be a ‘Centre of Excellence’ to train lawyers and judges.
A well-placed source in the ministry told Pakistan Today that the ministry aired its reservations about both these projects while they were in the planning stage. “If put together, both these projects cost around 4 billion rupees, and all this money is spent on brick-and-mortar structures. Expansion of Federal Judicial Academy was unnecessary, and as a result, no one is willing to own the project.
During the term of CJ Chaudhry, the government gave in to all of his demands and a huge chunk of ministry’s funds were funneled into construction and expansion projects,’ the source confided.
On the other hand, the Islamabad District Courts are situated in the shops and plazas of F-8 Markaz, while the lawyer chambers are built in makeshift shanties peppered in and out of courtrooms.
It’s been more than 36 years, but still, district courts have not been moved to a purpose-built building. Founded back in 1980, no proposal had been made till to-date to move the courts to an appropriate building.
It is rumored that once Islamabad High Court is moved to its new building; the District Courts will be shifted in high court’s present building.
The completion date of the new Islamabad High Court building is 24th June, 2018.
