ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Monday directed the Ministry of Law and Justice to rationalise the number of accountability courts and other special courts across the country in accordance with their caseloads, while ensuring that areas where an increase in cases is anticipated are not left without adequate judicial capacity.
The committee further directed that in such areas, cases could be transferred to one court while other courts remain vacant, allowing judges to be relieved and posted to courts facing a higher workload.
The committee, chaired by Senator Farooq Hamid Naek, met at the Parliament House and received a detailed briefing from the secretary of the Ministry of Law and Justice on the establishment, administration and functioning of special courts and tribunals constituted under various federal statutes and placed under the administrative control of the ministry under the Rules of Business, 1973. It examined the number of courts and tribunals lying vacant due to the non-appointment of presiding officers, the reasons for non-appointments, the number of pending cases before each court and tribunal, monthly disposal rates, and the need to establish new courts or tribunals or abolish existing ones in view of the available workload.
During the briefing, the committee reviewed the number of accountability courts and other specialised courts, including their pending caseloads, and discussed the need to rationalise their structure according to workload. It issued specific instructions for reducing the number of accountability courts across the country, as well as other special courts, in accordance with the number of pending cases.
The committee chairman was of the view that the number of courts should correspond to the number of pending cases to reduce the burden on the public exchequer and utilise the services of judges in courts where pendency was higher.
The minister of state for Law and Justice, however, said that abolishing courts solely on the basis of an apparent reduction in workload could create difficulties in the future, as re-establishing courts when the workload increases involves lengthy procedures.
The committee directed that where the government apprehends an increase in cases in the future, courts in those areas should not be abolished. Instead, cases could be transferred to one court while the other courts remain vacant, enabling judges to be posted to other courts where their services are required. The committee also discussed the status of courts dealing with narcotics-related cases. Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro questioned the constitutional and legal basis for maintaining federal or central narcotics courts after the 18th Amendment, arguing that narcotics-related matters were no longer a federal subject and that such courts should consequently be provincial rather than central in nature.
Senator Ghumro maintained that the central narcotics courts should be abolished in light of the constitutional framework introduced after the 18th Amendment. The committee directed the Ministry of Law and Justice to examine the matter in detail in light of the relevant law and provide a comprehensive briefing on the constitutional status of the CNS courts at its next meeting.
Regarding tribunals, the committee directed the ministry to provide a detailed briefing at its next meeting on their statutory framework, mode of appointment, province-wise membership and the appointing authority for each tribunal. The committee subsequently considered the Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced by Senator Sarmad Ali. The mover briefed the committee on the objects and reasons of the bill, while the ministry submitted a clause-by-clause comparative statement along with its reasons for opposing the proposed legislation. The chairman directed the mover to examine the ministry’s clause-by-clause objections and deferred consideration of the bill until the next meeting.
Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro raised the question of whether juvenile justice legislation constituted criminal law. The chairman ruled that the Juvenile Justice System law was a criminal law and therefore fell within the legislative competence of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament). The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Pakistan Psychological Council Bill, 2025 were deferred due to the absence of their movers.
The committee also considered the matter of salaries, allowances and other prerequisites of law officers, including assistant attorneys general and deputy attorneys general. The secretary Law and Justice informed the committee that summaries had been moved in accordance with directions issued at the previous meeting and that the process would take some time. The committee granted two weeks to complete the codal formalities for bringing the salaries of law officers at par and directed that the implementation status be presented at its next meeting.
