By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The newly established Federal Constitutional Court began hearing cases when a litigant handed over an appeal against a Sindh High Court ruling, the first document that marked the court’s debut filing on Friday.
The appellant, Ghulam Shah Abbasi, appeared in person to challenge a Sept. 8 decision by the Sindh High Court that had dismissed his petition as a private civil matter. Abbasi’s case involves a three-story residential building with shops in Hyderabad that he says he is entitled to inherit from his father, Noor Muhammad Abbasi, who died in 2003. He accuses relatives of abducting him, illegally confining him for 15 days in a drug rehabilitation ward, and harassing him to surrender his share.
The filing took place at a new Filing and Information Desk inaugurated only minutes earlier by the court’s registrar, Muhammad Hafeezullah Khan, in the Islamabad High Court building. A court statement described the desk as “a significant step toward enhancing public facilitation and improving access to judicial services.”
Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, who attended the opening, called the initiative “a historical milestone in strengthening judicial outreach and administrative efficiency.” Until Friday, lawyers and litigants had no clear place in the capital to submit constitutional petitions to the new court, which was created through the 26th Constitutional Amendment passed last month. Many had complained of confusion over procedure; some petitions had been returned or redirected.
The desk, located inside the Islamabad High Court building for now, is meant to end that uncertainty. It will accept new cases, provide information to the public, and process requests for certified copies of orders.
Besides Abbasi’s appeal, the desk received one other case on its first day, though no details were disclosed. In his handwritten petition, Abbasi asked the Federal Constitutional Court to set aside the Sindh High Court’s Sept. 8 order and to direct the provincial government to protect him from further harassment.
He told the court that relatives had “deceitfully” lured him to Hyderabad under the pretext of settling the inheritance, only to abduct him at Citizen Colony Gate and hold him in the drug ward of MK (Majnu Khan) Hospital. Abbasi also accused the Commissioner of the Sindh Revenue Board in Karachi of intimidation. A complaint about the alleged abduction was lodged on April 29, 2024, at Arambagh police station in Hyderabad, the petition states. The Sindh High Court had ruled that the dispute was purely civil and did not engage constitutional questions, a finding Abbasi now hopes the new federal court will overturn.
The Federal Constitutional Court simultaneously issued a notification clarifying its working hours and reiterated its commitment “to improving service delivery, transparency and ease of access for litigants across the country.”
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