Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Monday that the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the judicial system is the need of the hour, while delivering a keynote titled “Responsible Use of AI in the Justice Sector” at an international conference on artificial intelligence and the judiciary in Islamabad. She described the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication as a partner to every sector in its digitisation, and said smarter courts are the foundation not only of the nation but also of its commerce, with artificial intelligence a key to making them possible. She added that technology is no longer limited to a single field and has become part of healthcare, finance, education, and the legal system, so neither technology nor individual sectors can work in isolation.
The minister set out the conditions that must be met if artificial intelligence is to make justice faster, more transparent, and more effective. These include authentic data, the digitisation of court records, cybersecurity, data privacy, and human oversight. She stressed that old judicial documents, case records, and laws must be digitised according to established standards before artificial intelligence can be used effectively in the justice system. She pointed to the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, which provides a legal framework to transform governance, the economy, and society through technology, and to the Pakistan Digital Authority, which was created under the law to define standards for digital transformation. Working with the Ministry of Law and Justice, the authority has published standards for machine readable legislation, which convert traditional PDF legal documents into formats that machines can read, giving artificial intelligence systems authentic legal data and a linguistic corpus to work with.
On the progress made in digitising the judicial system, Shaza Fatima said the National Information Technology Board has signed two Memorandums of Understanding with the Supreme Court of Pakistan. She welcomed the national guidelines issued by the National Judicial Policy Committee in April 2026 on the use of artificial intelligence in the judiciary, describing them as a landmark milestone. She also said that artificial intelligence solutions will prove effective only if technology experts understand the needs of the judiciary and legal professionals acquire artificial intelligence skills, which makes cooperation between the two communities necessary. The minister thanked the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Supreme Court for their support of digital transformation in the judicial sector.
The minister argued that Pakistan needs to adopt technology and adapt to its use while protecting public trust and privacy. She said artificial intelligence can also promote inclusion by allowing citizens to reach public services through digital platforms, and that the justice system must keep pace with other sectors so that citizens can access justice from their homes. Her remarks fit into a wider move in the judiciary, where the Supreme Court has already introduced video link hearings and a legal call centre in 1818, and is working towards a nationwide electronic court system. The test now will be how quickly court records are digitised to the new standards, and whether the guidelines on artificial intelligence are followed in practice by judges, court staff, and the technology teams that build the tools they use.
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