Federal IT and Telecommunication Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Monday that AI in judiciary work is urgently needed, but only if courts first secure authentic data, digitise records, protect privacy and keep people deciding cases. Speaking at an international conference on AI and the Judiciary in Islamabad, she argued that those safeguards are what make justice faster, clearer and more effective.
What the minister set as conditions
Khawaja stressed that trust comes first. Large language models—software that drafts text from patterns in data—can produce wrong or unchecked answers, she warned, so a “human in the loop” must stay inside any court use of AI. She said useful systems also need dedicated, secure databases of verified judgments, statutes, case law, court files and relevant international research, plus firm cybersecurity, data privacy and accountability.
Unstructured paper files will not support reliable AI results, she added. Legacy case papers, pending matters, laws and other legal documents therefore have to be digitised to agreed standards. She linked that push to the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, which she described as a broad framework for digital change across governance, the economy and society, and to the Pakistan Digital Authority created under the Act to set transformation standards.
Digitisation already under way
Working with the Ministry of Law and Justice, she said, the Pakistan Digital Authority has published standards for machine-readable legislation so traditional PDF legal texts can become formats AI systems can use as authentic source material. She thanked the ministry, the Law Minister and the Law Secretary for cooperation from the judicial side.
The National Information Technology Board (NITB)—the federal body that builds and runs many government IT systems—has signed two memoranda of understanding with the Supreme Court of Pakistan. An e-office system is in place at the Supreme Court, she said, and digital tools are being used to make administrative work at the Supreme Court and the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan paperless. A case management dashboard is available to the higher judiciary, and the Case Management System is active, linked and able to work with provincial courts.
She noted that roughly 2.2 million cases were pending in Pakistan in 2025, so even small efficiency gains from technology could ease the backlog. She also backed wider use of alternative dispute resolution, arbitration and mediation as support for ordinary court work, praising ministry steps to bring those options into the mainstream.
Startups, skills and national guidelines
On AI legal technology for everyday users, Khawaja named Pakistani startups including Munshi and Lawbot Pakistan as already offering tech- and AI-based help to lawyers and citizens. Such tools will work, she said, only when developers understand court needs and legal professionals learn AI skills; both sides need large-scale training.
She called national guidelines on AI use in the courts, issued by the National Judicial Policy Committee in April 2026, a landmark. Citing UNESCO figures shared at the event, she said only 9 percent of countries worldwide had issued similar judicial AI guidelines, which she used to argue for clearer national rules, codes of conduct and regulatory frameworks, and for countries to share good practice.
Citizens already use digital channels for health, education, finance and government services, she observed, so justice must keep pace. Used carefully, technology and AI in judiciary processes could bring legal help closer to people’s homes, save time and money, and raise transparency. She closed by thanking partners including the IMAC team, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Federal Judicial Academy, the Farabi Center for AI and Cybersecurity, the Pakistan Digital Authority, NITB and the National Center for Artificial Intelligence.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 2025: About 2.2 million cases were pending across Pakistan, the minister said, underlining pressure on courts.
- April 2026: The National Judicial Policy Committee issued national guidelines on AI use in the judiciary.
- 2 November 2026: In Islamabad, Shaza Fatima Khawaja set out conditions—trust, transparency, data security and human oversight—for AI in the judicial system at an international conference.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Wazir Shaza Fatima Khawaja ne kaha hai ke adalaton mein AI tabhi faida degi jab data sahi ho, records digital hon, aur faisla aakhir mein insan kare. Pakistan mein 2025 ke dauran lagbhag 22 lakh cases pending the, is liye technology se thori si tez raftari bhi madadgar ho sakti hai. Cybersecurity aur privacy ke baghair AI par bharosa nahi kiya ja sakta. Aam logon ke liye matlab yeh hai ke online legal madad aa sakti hai, lekin judge ya lawyer ki jagah machine nahi legi.
