PBC gets Rs20 million

ISLAMABAD: Federal law minister Babar Awan made good on his promise to the Pakistan Bar Council and handed over Rs20 million of the Rs51 million he had promised them. The funds are to be spent on lawyer welfare.

Awan hand delivered the cheque to PBC office bearers in the Supreme Court building. On May 25, Awan had promised the council Rs30 million, another Rs10 million for the welfare of senior lawyers of the Supreme Court and an additional Rs10 million for women lawyers. The council was also to be given Rs1 million for its staff.

Awan chose to announce the grant just after he appeared before the five-member bench of the Supreme Court hearing the suo motu case of non-implementation of the court’s verdict regarding the National Reconciliation Ordinance. Interestingly, soon after, the PBC came up with an innovative way of making Awan look good: by vilifying the others who, with Awan, were alleged to have acted as touts for judges in the Rs9-billion Bank of Punjab scam.

The primary accused in the BoP case Sheikh Afzal had named several lawyers who, he said, had taken money from him to procure a clean chit for him in the case. Awan’s name was on top of the list.

However, in a strange move on June 8, the PBC decided to send the names of eminent lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan and NAB  prosecutor-general Irfan Qadir to its disciplinary committee for having acted as touts. Significantly, Ahsan had already been cleared of the charges by NAB itself after the lawyer had submitted his taxation records. Interestingly, however, the PBC did not see fit to bite the hand that fed it: Awan’s name did not feature on the list to be investigated by the disciplinary committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2010.