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The Ju­di­cia­ry has reaf­firmed its pol­i­cy on vir­tu­al hear­ings in crim­i­nal mat­ters, stress­ing that peo­ple charged with of­fences must ap­pear on the same day via video link with­out be­ing trans­port­ed to a cour­t­house.

“This arrange­ment does not con­vert po­lice sta­tions in­to court­rooms—it just puts the ac­cused in front of a com­put­er for a vir­tu­al ap­pear­ance,” the Ju­di­cia­ry clar­i­fied in a state­ment.

Yes­ter­day, Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Is­rael Khan SC, called on the Chief Jus­tice to ex­plain why vir­tu­al courts are still op­er­at­ing out of po­lice sta­tions.