The Ministry of Law and Justice has been allocated Rs 1200 million under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the financial year 2017-18, and the amount will be spent on 9 schemes out of which 5 are on-going projects from last year’s while 4 new schemes will be initiated. Interestingly, all the new schemes are brick and mortar construction projects like construction of office building of Federal Tax Ombudsman, residences of judges, sessions’ courts and rest house.
Out of total Rs 1.2 billion allocation for year 2017-18, Rs 500 million have been earmarked for the construction of Islamabad High Court building in Red Zone, the total cost of the project is estimated at Rs 2.8 billion and is likely to be completed till June 30, 2018.
The Federal Programme for Access to Justice that expands all over Pakistan has been given Rs 300 million, the programme has an estimated cost of Rs 6.4 billion and started back in 2006 is all set to be completed in June 2019. Also Rs 20 million have been allocated to Public Awareness and Advocacy about Dispute Resolution Mechanism of Federal Tax Ombudsman.
Rs 32.241 million have been earmarked for the construction of official residence for Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) in Sector F-5/2 Islamabad. Also Rs 100 million were originally demanded for construction of office building of FTO. Rs 100 million have been allocated for the construction of Sessions Division East of Islamabad High Court. Rs 82.721 million have been allocated for the construction of Judges Rest House of Islamabad High Court for the acquisition of land.
Furthermore, Rs 30.587 million rupees have been proposed for strengthening the Ombudsman System of Administrative Justice and upgradation/expansion of Online Complaint Management Information System (CMIS).
Interestingly, the Ministry of Law and Justice has failed to bag any foreign aid even for a single project and all the projects will be funded by the federal government. The ministry has spent Rs 1.095 billion during year 2016-2017 on its 10 projects under the head of PSDP.
At present a total of 5 projects of Ministry of Law and Justice are ongoing. The total approved estimated cost of these projects is around Rs 9.4 billion and majority of these projects will be completed in 2018.
