IHC orders crackdown on illegal shisha cafés

Separately, the Inspector General of Islamabad Police has submitted a report to the court detailing enforcement action against shisha cafés, maintaining that allegations of police negligence were contrary to the facts. The report records 89 cases registered between January 1 and September 7, 2026, involving 282 suspects.

Hearing a petition against shisha cafés operating without NOCs, the chief justice questioned whether the government had formulated rules to regulate these establishments. He said the court had previously directed the authorities to allow only cafés operating in accordance with the law, but its order had been misinterpreted.

The chief commissioner, deputy commissioner, IGP, Prosecutor General Manzoor Jhajja, Advocate General Naveed Malik and Deputy Attorney General Arshad Kayani appeared before the court following directions for their immediate attendance. During the proceedings, the government counsel informed the court that draft rules for shisha cafés had been prepared and forwarded to the government for approval, which was expected soon.

The CJ recalled that the court had earlier been és would leave many people unemployed. However, he stressed that the authorities needed to establish whether existing establishments were complying with the applicable requirements.

"If we keep granting extensions, young people will continue using shisha," the chief justice observed, adding that children were being introduced to the habit and that such activities could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. He said the cafés could be temporarily closed until the rules were finalised and a decision taken on their future.

If the government failed to formulate the regulations, he added, it should introduce its own standard operating procedures (SOPs). The Prosecutor General informed the court that the Supreme Court had imposed a ban on shisha cafés in a suo motu case.

The petitioner's counsel suggested that keeping the establishments closed for 15 to 20 days would provide sufficient time to finalise the rules. The director of legal affairs at the Islamabad Inspector General's office also argued that the activity should be stopped in the absence of a governing law.

The chief justice questioned why people should be allowed to use shisha even at the top of a mountain, asking why the public should suffer for the sake of one group.