Easy on the testing: NTS should not be mandatory for K-P Bar Council says PHC

Petitioners say some subjects tested by the service are not taught to law degree holders.


Our Correspondent September 26, 2014

PESHAWAR:


The Peshawar High Court (PHC) observed on Friday that appearing for the National Testing Services (NTS) test should not be mandatory for law degree holders to get registered with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council.


The division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain made the observation while hearing several applications filed by fresh graduates.

Counsels for petitioners Muhammad Ali and Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel argued that their clients recently graduated and when they sought registration with the K-P Bar Council they were told to appear for a NTS test.

They argued that in the past, the K-P Bar Council would prepare a paper for the candidates, but certain amendments were made in 2013 by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the NTS test was made a requirement. They pointed out that the PBC was not authorised to make such changes.



Both the counsels informed the bench that some of the subjects mentioned in the NTS test were not even taught to law graduates and there was no mention of such a test in the K-P Bar Council Act.

They argued that making the NTS mandatory has put the future of law graduates in question.

However, PBC member Advocate Abdul Latif Afridi said the aim of including the NTS as a prerequisite for registration was to allow people to come up through its ranks. He added if NTS authorities have included some subjects which are against the bar council’s curriculum, the situation would be corrected.

K-P Bar Council representative Advocate Amjad Ali Shah said the decision was taken by the PBC based on the recommendations of the National Judicial (Policy-Making) Committe so that those joining the profession could be filtered. He argued that decisions taken on the NTS were declared correct by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the PHC division bench, while partially accepting the writ petitions, exempted the current petitioners from the NTS test.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2014.

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