FOR many litigants and junior lawyers, City Courts is their first experience with Pakistan’s judicial system. It is the court of first instance: where rights are first asserted, arrests first challenged and legal redress first sought. It is also where the state’s promise of justice often unravels; not in doctrine, but in environment.

The conditions of the City Courts in Karachi are emblematic of the broader decay in Pakistan’s judicial infrastructure. While the superior judiciary continues to pronounce on matters of national importance, the spaces in which its work begins remain neglected, overburdened and, in many respects, unfit for the administration of justice.

The most glaring issue, which perhaps goes unaddressed due to it being one of appearance, is the severe lack of hygiene and sanitation within the City Courts. Buildings remain chronically unclean, with paan stains on walls, stagnant water on floors and trash strewn across public spaces. The area designated for under-trial prisoners, which is already a vulnerable population, is often overcrowded and unsanitary, raising serious concerns about dignity, health and human rights.

Beyond the City Courts’ physical decay lies a deeper problem.

Basic infrastructure failures also impede access. Elevators are regularly out of order, making courtrooms on upper floors inaccessible to most litigants. Parking, or the lack thereof, along M.A. Jinnah Road, which is in front of the South Gate of City Courts, adds another layer of chaos to an already strained system, since many lawyers and litigants park on both ends of the main road.

Communication remains an issue, with no mobile coverage in certain buildings. With patchy internet coverage across court buildings, coordination and communication between lawyers and litigants, as well as junior lawyers informing their seniors regarding the details of cases, face consistent barriers. The introduction of the video-link system, which apart from its constitutional repercussions, largely does not work — with the accused persons or whoever is appearing on camera not being able to hear or even see the court.

Beyond the physical decay lies a deeper institutional problem: the lack of investment in judicial capacity and culture. There is little to no meaningful training for judicial officers, especially in managing complex procedural issues or adapting to evolving categories of relief. Within the legal community, it is well understood that the lower courts are reluctant to grant interim or innovative relief. This hesitation, in the author’s view, stems from a combination of administrative fatigue, fear of professional scrutiny and an overly narrow reading of the law.

The result is a judicial environment where relief is rarely proactive and often risk-averse. Instead of approaching the law as a living instrument, trial courts increasingly insist on rigid precedent; demanding identical past judgements before considering any novel claim.

Frequently, judges refuse to apply the law to evolving situations, declining to interpret statutes or case law beyond their most literal reading, and often remarking that such relief is ‘something the high court will grant you’. This leaves most litigants, who face complex, contemporary legal issues, effectively stranded.

It is important to acknowledge that despite these shortcomings, not all is bleak. Many judges at the City Courts, even within difficult constraints, strive to deliver relief. Where the video-link system fails, it is not uncommon to find judges using their personal devices and internet connections to ensure proceedings continue. While court staff can be difficult to deal with, there are moments when they go out of their way to re--solve urgent issues.

City Courts, like many institutions in our country, operates informally, and that informality, at times, works to everyone’s advantage. The perception that lower court judges are routinely corrupt is also overstated.

In truth, the financial incentives to solicit bribes are far less prevalent than most assume, and most judicial of--ficers continue to work with integrity and professionalism. What they lack is not intent, but institutional support, structured training and the resources necessary to carry out their duties effectively.

City Courts, like all trial courts, is where justice begins. If the physical and cultural state of these institutions is ignored, then no amount of higher court reform or constitutional idealism can restore public faith in the system. The government, the judiciary and the bar must address the conditions of the lower courts on a priority basis, not just for the sake of efficiency, but also for the legitimacy of the rule of law itself.

The writer is a lawyer.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025