SCBA rejects bill seeking to impose ban on lawyers

Supreme Court Bar Association says govt move based on ‘ill-will and malice’

ISLAMABAD: After serious tensions over Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a clash between the PTI-led federal government and the legal community may erupt over a proposal for lifetime cancellation of a lawyer’s practicing licence in case he/she is found guilty of committing acts of physical violence against any individual.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) expressed grave concern over a bill tabled in the National Assembly by the government for making amendments through introduction of Sub-section 6 in Section 41 of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Act, 2019.

According to the statement issued by the SCBA executive body under the leadership of its president Syed Qalb-e-Hassan, through the amendments, the government is considering imposing bans and cancelling licences of lawyers involved in violence or in any other adversarial activity, which is unacceptable for the legal fraternity as the same is based on ill-will and malice.

The SCBA clarified for all concerned that proper accountability system for lawyers is already in place and practiced at the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) – the apex regulatory body of lawyers in Pakistan – alongside several tribunals which are fully empowered to take disciplinary action against lawyers, if required.

The SCBA, therefore, discards any such bill, which challenges the sovereignty and independence of lawyers and through which a malicious effort is made to brush off the freedom of expression and rule of law in order to undermine the dignity of an independent community (lawyers) of the country, the statement added.

The SCBA advises the relevant segment of government to refrain from taking any such step which provokes the lawyers’ community and perturbs them or else the “SCBA along with the entire legal fraternity of the country will resist the same through full force and battle the same legally as well as on roads”.

Earlier, the Ministry of Law had sought comments from the PBC.

A letter was sent to the PBC seeking input on a bill ‘Legal Practitioner and Bar Council Act, 2019’ introduced in the National Assembly by the ruling PTI’s lawmaker, Amjad Ali Khan.

The bill proposes, “The licence of legal practitioner shall be cancelled for life in case of physical violence against any person by him and the licence shall also be cancelled, if the legal practitioner is involved in cheating, fraud, forgery, false affidavit and deliberate concealment of facts.”

In its ‘object and reasons’, the bill notes that the amendment has been proposed in view of “recent incidents of protests” turning into violent activities, involving members of the legal profession and “to ensure a peaceful environment in the legal profession and judicial proceedings in the future”.

The bill apparently refers to the December 11, 2019 incident in Lahore.

On that day, at least three cardiac patients lost their lives when scores of lawyers stormed the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), vandalising the facility and thrashing everyone in sight apparently to “settle the score” with doctors who, they claimed, had attacked one of their colleagues.

The enraged lawyers had broken windowpanes, doors and equipment at Punjab’s largest cardiac facility and also set fire to several vehicles, including a police van. Witnesses had reported that the protesters also thrashed medics and patients in the emergency ward of the hospital.

Renowned Karachi-based lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed said changing punishments may not be a useful way of controlling misconduct of lawyers.

“The main problem in curbing professional misconduct is actually that professionals are reluctant to punish their own colleagues, whether the punishment is small or great.

“I think the only effective way is to amend the law in such a way that the concerned disciplinary bodies/tribunals have at least partial representation of people/civil society members who do not belong to the subject profession,” he said.

Ahmad recommended that the PBC members should choose one representative each from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) or a media body and that such representative should enjoy fixed three-year tenure.

Under the law, superior courts judges are head of tribunals which hear complaints’ against judges.