Federal Shariat Court
Examines whether laws conform to the Injunctions of Islam, and hears appeals in Hudood matters.
The forum
The Federal Shariat Court considers whether a law is repugnant to the Injunctions of Islam, and sits as an appellate court in Hudood cases. Its principal seat is Islamabad, and it sits at Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. Its decisions on the repugnancy of a law bind the High Courts, and an appeal from it lies to the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court.
Where it sits
The principal seat is Islamabad. It also sits at Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. 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
Matters here run alongside a firm's ordinary work rather than in place of it, which is how they get forgotten. The diary has to carry which bench a matter is listed before, because the court moves between cities, and a date given at one sitting is not a date at the seat. A firm also needs to see that a matter here is connected to an ordinary criminal appeal elsewhere on the same facts, or it will send two people to two cities on the same morning without noticing.
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.
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.