ISLAMABAD - The hearing of high profile cases, including the cases against former President Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, will start from Monday in accountability court, while the government has not provided proper security to Judicial Complex.
Senior Advocate Asad Abbasi, counsel of Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and an important member of Farooq H Naek Law Associates, showed serious concern over the security issue of the Judicial Complex. He said Naek, senior counsel of Zardari, had lodged a protest with the officials of Judicial Complex over unsatisfactory security measures. He said it was the government's duty to appoint security personnel at walkthrough gates. The lawyers are feeling themselves insecure after the Islamabad district courts blast, he added.
Judicial Complex is located at F-11 and it houses important courts including accountability court, anti-terrorism court, banking court, family court and special court.
According to sources, interior ministry assured the registrar of Islamabad High Court of providing foolproof security to judiciary and Judicial Complex but it only installed a walkthrough gate at Judicial Complex. The ministry did not take proper steps for security of Islamabad district courts and Judicial Complex, they added.
Talking to The Nation, the IHC registrar said that he had written a letter to interior ministry, seeking proper security for all courts and Judicial Complex. He said the ministry was in contact with the relevant courts officials and cooperating in resolving the security issues. He said the ministry had increased the security of courts and deployed Rangers personnel there.
A senior lawyer Khurram Manzoor, who was an eyewitness of Islamabad district courts blast, said that after the terror incident Islamabad administration installed CCTV cameras and walkthrough gates on entry and exit points of the courts. He informed that lawyers staged protests in front of the Parliament House for construction of a building for lawyer's chambers and boundary wall of the district courts. He said the government officials had assured lawyers to allocate funds in the next budget to take aforementioned steps for lawyers' security.