Your uncle says his property dispute is going to court. Your cousin says her divorce case is going to court too. Both are right, and both are walking into different buildings.
Pakistan has many courts, at many levels. The answer to "how many" is not one tidy number. Here is the full picture in plain language.
The short answer
Pakistan has eight superior courts. One Supreme Court. One Federal Constitutional Court. One Federal Shariat Court. And five High Courts.
Below them sits one District and Sessions Court in every district. The four provinces and the federal capital alone have close to 150 districts. Below those sit civil courts, magistrates, family courts and special courts. Count everything and the number runs into the thousands.
The Constitution creates the superior courts directly, in Part VII starting at Article 175. Parliament and the provinces create the rest by law. Here is each level, what it does, and where it sits.
The Supreme Court: one court at the top
Pakistan has one Supreme Court. It sits in Islamabad, with registries in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.
Since the 27th Constitutional Amendment in November 2025, the Supreme Court is the final court of appeal for ordinary civil and criminal cases. Its decisions bind every other court in the country. Article 189 of the Constitution says so.
If you want to know how many judges sit on it, read our guide on how many judges are in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The Federal Constitutional Court: new since 2025
The newest court in the country. Parliament passed the 27th Constitutional Amendment on 13 November 2025, and the Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan started work within days.
It handles constitutional cases. It interprets the Constitution, settles disputes between the federal government and the provinces, and hears appeals from the High Courts on constitutional questions. Its decisions bind all other courts, including the Supreme Court.
The law allows 13 judges. The first Chief Justice, Justice Aminuddin Khan, took oath on 14 November 2025. Judges retire at 68. The court sits in Islamabad and has registries around the country. The full text of the 27th Amendment Act is on the official law ministry site.
The Federal Shariat Court: one court for Islamic law
Pakistan has one Federal Shariat Court. Article 203C of the Constitution creates it. You can read the Federal Shariat Court chapter of the Constitution online.
Its job is to check whether laws match the injunctions of Islam. If a law clashes, the court can strike it down or ask the government to bring it in line.
The court can have up to eight Muslim judges, including the Chief Justice. No more than three of them are scholars of Islamic law, called ulema.
The five High Courts
Five High Courts. One for each province and one for the federal capital.
Lahore High Court for Punjab. Sindh High Court in Karachi. Peshawar High Court for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Balochistan High Court in Quetta. And the Islamabad High Court, which was set up in 2010.
Each High Court hears appeals from the courts below it. Each can also step in directly when a fundamental right is violated or a government body acts outside the law. That power comes from Article 199.
Benches matter too. Many cities host a bench of their provincial High Court, so you can file closer to home. Our guide on how many high courts there are in Pakistan lists every bench.
District and Sessions Courts: one in every district
This is the court most people mean when they say "going to court".
One District and Sessions Court sits in every district of Pakistan. The District and Sessions Judge heads it. Serious criminal trials start here, and so do the bigger civil suits.
How many districts are there? Punjab has 41. Sindh has 30. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 40. Balochistan has 36. The federal capital makes one more. That is close to 150 district courts in the four provinces and the capital alone, and the count grows every few years when a province carves out a new district. The district list on Wikipedia tracks these changes.
The courts below the district court
Most people never enter a sessions court. Their case starts one level down.
Civil judges hear property, money and contract disputes. Judicial magistrates handle criminal matters, including cases that come from an FIR. Family courts deal with marriage, divorce, custody and maintenance. The Family Courts Act 1964 created a family court for every district.
Special courts and tribunals
On top of the regular ladder, Pakistan has courts built for one kind of case each.
Banking courts for loan recovery. Anti-terrorism courts for terror offences. Labour courts for worker disputes. Consumer courts for faulty goods and services. Customs courts, tax tribunals, service tribunals for government employees, juvenile courts and drug courts.
These courts sit outside the district ladder, but their decisions can still be appealed. The appeal usually goes to the High Court.
What about Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan?
They run separate systems. Azad Kashmir has its own Supreme Court and High Court. Gilgit-Baltistan has its own Chief Court. They are not part of the federal court ladder.
So how many courts are there, really?
Count the top tiers and you get eight. One Supreme Court. One Federal Constitutional Court. One Federal Shariat Court. Five High Courts.
Add the district courts and you cross 150 in the provinces and the capital, more if you count Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Add every civil judge, magistrate, family court and special court below them, and the total runs into the thousands. No official body publishes one single number, because new courts open every year.
What matters for you is not the total. It is which court hears your case.
Which court handles your case?
Family problem? The family court. Property or money dispute? The civil court. Theft, assault or anything from an FIR? The magistrate or the sessions court. A constitutional question? The Federal Constitutional Court. An appeal from a High Court on an ordinary case? The Supreme Court.
If your case is already in a High Court, you can check a High Court case status online in Pakistan without leaving your house.
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