ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court on Monday summoned secretaries of interior, law, finance and planning to appear before the court on next hearing in a petition seeking separate buildings of East and West session courts of the federal capital.

A single bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice IHC Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition and deferred the hearing for two weeks after issuing aforementioned directions.

During the hearing, the IHC Chief Justice expressed annoyance over officials of interior ministry, saying that they had failed to shift the district courts to some appropriate place.

Deputy Secretary Interior and deputy commissioner Islamabad were also present in the court while the court directed the deputy commissioner to submit the report in this connection.

Counsel for the petitioner Chaudhry Akram Advocate adopted before the court that the East and West courts should be separated. The courts for women and children should also be separated, he added.

Justice Athar remarked that it was responsibility of the state to provide suitable place for courts, adding that there was no place for women judges in lower courts. He said that the courts were working in old and dilapidated buildings where no special security arrangements were available.

The Chief Commissioner said that the lower courts were facing a lot of problems. He said that sessions’ courts would move to new building after shifting of the High Court to its own building.

The Chief Justice remarked that model judicial complex in Islamabad was need of the hour and added that it was a failure of the state since 1980 for provision of proper buildings to lower courts.

He maintained that there should be a model judicial system for residents of the federal capital.

Akram Advocate said that no new plots have been allocated for the construction of the district and high courts of the federal capital in the revised Master Plan prepared by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).