Sitting in the waiting room of a district court, you might hear people talk about "going to the High Court." Someone else says it. Someone means the one in Lahore. Someone means the one in Islamabad. It can get confusing fast.
The short answer is simple. Pakistan has five High Courts. One for each of the four provinces, and one for the federal capital. Here is each one, what it does, and who sits on it.
The short answer: five High Courts
Pakistan has five High Courts. Each one sits at the top of its court system, below only the Supreme Court.
- Lahore High Court for Punjab, in Lahore. It also has benches in Bahawalpur, Multan and Rawalpindi.
- Sindh High Court for Sindh, in Karachi. Benches sit in Sukkur, Hyderabad and Larkana.
- Peshawar High Court for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Peshawar. Benches sit in Abbottabad, Mingora, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu.
- Balochistan High Court for Balochistan, in Quetta. Benches sit in Sibi and Turbat.
- Islamabad High Court for the federal capital, in Islamabad. It was set up in 2010.
The Constitution of Pakistan sets this out. Article 175 says there is a High Court for each province and one for the Islamabad Capital Territory. The rules that govern the High Courts sit in Articles 192 to 203. You can read the plain text of the Constitution here.
What is a High Court for?
Think of a High Court as the second last stop for most cases. It hears appeals from the sessions courts and the civil and criminal courts below it. If a district court decides a case and one side is not happy, the appeal usually goes to the High Court.
The High Court also has a special power. Under Article 199 it can step in when a fundamental right is being violated or when a government body acts outside the law. This is called writ jurisdiction. A person can ask the High Court directly for help, without going through the lower courts first.
From the High Court, a case can go one step further to the Supreme Court in specific situations. So the ladder is clear. District courts at the bottom, the High Court in the middle, the Supreme Court at the top. You can browse all our guides on Pakistani law to see how each level works.
Who sits on a High Court?
Each High Court is headed by a Chief Justice. Other judges, called puisne judges, sit alongside. They hear cases and decide them by a majority.
Judges are appointed by the President on the advice of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan, which is set up under Article 175A. A High Court judge must be a qualified lawyer with enough years of practice. Appointments are meant to go to people of proven ability and integrity.
The size of each High Court is not the same. The bigger the province, the more judges it needs. That is why the Lahore High Court has the largest number of judges, because Punjab handles the biggest share of cases.
A short history
The number five did not come all at once. At partition in 1947 Pakistan inherited the Lahore High Court and three smaller courts, one in Sindh, one in the North West Frontier Province and one in East Pakistan.
Over the years these were merged and split again. In 1976 the courts were reorganised into four High Courts, one for each province. That stayed the count for decades.
Then in 2010, the 18th Amendment created the Islamabad High Court. That is when Pakistan went from four High Courts to five. The Federal Judicial Academy's own study of the judicial system describes this structure in detail.
Not to be mixed up with the others
The five High Courts are not the whole of the superior judiciary. Pakistan also has the Federal Shariat Court, which looks at whether laws match Islamic injunctions. In 2025 a Federal Constitutional Court was also set up to handle constitutional cases.
Those are separate courts. They do not change the number of High Courts. When someone asks how many High Courts Pakistan has, the answer stays five.
And above them all sits one Supreme Court. Read our guide on how many judges are in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
For the complete ladder, read our guide on how many courts there are in Pakistan.
Tracking a case in a High Court
If you have a case in a High Court, you do not have to wait around for news. Pakistan offers free online portals where you can check a case's status by name or cause title. The process is straightforward and works from your phone.
If you are not sure where to start, our guide on how to check a High Court case status online in Pakistan walks you through it step by step.
Why the number matters to you
The right High Court usually depends on where you live or where the case happened. File in the wrong one and you lose time and court fees. So it is worth knowing which High Court covers your area before you start.
Punjab cases go to Lahore High Court. Sindh cases go to Sindh High Court. Each High Court has its own Chief Justice, and you can read about the chief justice of the Sindh High Court in our guide. And so on for Peshawar, Balochistan and Islamabad. The bench system means many people can file closer to home, at a nearby bench rather than travelling to the main seat. Whatever the case, Lexiber can point you to the right court and the right section of law.
Ask Lexiber free in English or Urdu. It shows you the exact section behind every answer.
