Govt seeks bar council action against former NRO counsel

Lawyers’ body approached to take disciplinary action against Kamal Azfar.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has accused former NRO counsel Kamal Azfar of professional misconduct for appearing before the Supreme Court (SC) in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) review case and has requested the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to take disciplinary action against him.

The government has taken the stance that there was no client-counsel relationship between the federation and Barrister Kamal Azfar after October 13, 2010 and there is no legal, moral or professional justification for his statement, which embarrassed the federation before the Supreme Court. Latif Khosa had replaced Kamal Azfar in the NRO review case on October 6 and the court had allowed him to argue the case on October13, stated the application.

Kamal Azfar wrote an ‘unauthorised’ letter to the SC registrar on October 30, last year, stating that he was available to argue the case after resigning as adviser to the prime minister. The government has contended that Azfar is liable to face disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the law for misrepresentation before the apex court. “Azfar has committed gross misconduct by shaking the confidence of his client and has rendered himself liable to disciplinary proceedings by the Pakistan  Bar Council,” read the application. The government has submitted the application to the PBC’s disciplinary committee for initiating proceedings against Azfar.

Asma Jahangir, President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), has expressed grave concern over the threats received by Kamal Azfar. She warned that the bar will not tolerate any act of intimidation against its member by the government or its cronies.  Azfar is not known for theatrics, she said. He is a senior advocate who discharged his professional duties in the NRO case. As a lawyer he is bound by professional ethics and any attempt to pressurise or threaten a lawyer in the discharge of his responsibilities is totally unacceptable, she stated. The SCBA particularly deplores that his wife was approached to harass the family. Asma Jahangir expects that the President and the Prime Minister will take notice of this scandalous incident and rein in their political spin masters as well as tender an apology to Kamal Azfar, read the statement.

The day before, the Supreme Court had allowed Kamal Azfar to withdraw from the NRO review case when he disclosed that his wife, Nahida Jaffery and his assistant Sardar Zulqarnain had been warned of dire consequences by Advocate Abubakr Zardari, if he represented the federation for the NRO. Azfar said the threats that appeared to have been delivered on a third-party directive, had broken the trust between him and the federation. Taking notice of the incident, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry summoned Inspector General Islamabad Police Wajid Ali Durrani, and ordered security arrangements for Azfar. Durrani was also directed to submit an inquiry report of the incident within three days.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2011.