Legal advisory helpline to facilitate callers six days a week

Speakers discuss services that are being provided free of charge to public by call centre

KARACHI: If you are not aware of your rights and the law, it is not a problem anymore as Legal Advisory Call Centre (LACC) is available for your assistance six days a week.

This was announced at a seminar organised by Legal Aid Society (LAS) to create awareness regarding LACC at the Arts Council of Pakistan on Tuesday. LACC is a countrywide accessible helpline that provides free legal advice to any person who calls on its toll-free number. It was established by the LAS in 2014.

In the seminar, office-bearers of the LAS briefed the audience on the services that they provide free of charge to the public, especially people who belong to underprivileged and marginalised groups.



"So far, LACC has received 140,371 calls [and] registered 41,331 queries from 236 cities of Pakistan," revealed Barrister Haya Zahid, a board member of the LAS. She further said LACC provides legal advice in all kinds of cases including civil, criminal, public and family cases. The quality and correctness of the advice is overseen by two retired judges of the Supreme Court, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice (retd) Khilji Arif Hussain, informed Haya.

The chairperson of the LAS, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, spoke about the formation, objectives and goals of the LAS. "The primary objective of the establishment of the LAS is to work towards bridging the gap between supply and demand of quality, effective and inexpensive legal services and representation to serve the interests of the people, particularly disempowered and marginalised groups," he said.

He said that during his time as a judge, he saw how lack of knowledge about law and legal processes led to exploitation of the people through the law. That was one of the main reasons for creating LAS, to be able to strengthen, facilitate and give technical support to the state and the people for improving access to justice for all, he said.



"It is essential for people to know their rights and this information is not readily available, which is why the LACC plays an important role to fill this gap," said Justice Khilji Arif Hussain. The LACC ensured that the lawyers spoke different local languages to be able to facilitate the callers better, he added.