LBA invites lawyers to apply for chambers

Says offices at old sessions court site will be allotted through ballot.

LAHORE: The Lahore Bar Association (LBA) is to invite applications from lawyers from today (Monday) for the allotment of offices in a new building being built at the old sessions court site.

A total of 612 chambers, each accommodating two lawyers, will be allotted through a ballot, said LBA General Secretary Asad Abbad Zaidi. He said that the new building would be ready in 2014 and the ballot would be conducted before then.

He said the LBA would display notices inviting applications from lawyers from Monday. Each applicant will have to pay a non-refundable fee of Rs2,000. Lawyers who have chambers at the District Court, Cantonment Courts or Model Town Courts will not be eligible to apply. The new building will include a parking area, bar room and courtrooms.

Zaidi said that members of the Punjab Bar Council and the Lahore Bar Association will be eligible to apply. He said that 612 chambers were still not enough for all the deserving lawyers, but it was a positive development.

Several lawyers welcomed the news, but some dismissed it as a ploy to win votes ahead of bar elections in January. One lawyer pointed out that the term of the current LBA administration finished at the end of this year, while the building was not due to be finished until 2014. “Why are they inviting applications now? This administration will be gone by the time it comes to allotment. It is just an election drama,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd,  2012.