Accountability Court
Tries corruption references, sitting in the principal cities.
The forum
Accountability Courts hear references concerning corruption and corrupt practices. They sit in Islamabad and the principal provincial cities. References are heard on the evidence of a long investigation, and the record can run to thousands of pages across years of hearings.
Where it sits
The principal seat is Islamabad. It also sits at Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Sukkur. A date given at one is not a date at another, which is why the bench belongs in the record with the date.
What a firm has to track
References run for years, with long gaps and a large record. The diary has to hold the history as well as the next date: what happened on each previous date is the thing a partner needs before the next one, and nobody can reconstruct it from memory two years in. Two things matter beyond the next date. The history, because nobody reconstructs four years of adjournments from memory. And the fee position: a matter of this length is billed in stages, and a firm that cannot see the stage cannot bill it or explain it.
The date the court gives is a fact. Whoever is standing there records it in CaseMate before they leave the building, and the office acknowledges it — it does not wait to be approved.
The firm decides who goes to the next hearing, against the hearing itself. A matter at a distant bench is a travel arrangement, not a line in a list.
Every previous date, its outcome and the note taken at the time — so a partner can be answered without opening the file.
A hearing in the past with nothing recorded against it is the one thing a diary must never hide. CaseMate lists them separately.
Other courts in the same work
Start with today's list.
Set your firm up in a couple of minutes, enter the cases you are running this week, and let your associates report from court.