LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Punjab government to issue a notification within a week allocating Rs10 million annually for the provision of medical facility to lawyers.
Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry issued this order in a petition of the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) that sought medical facility for the lawyers identical to that available to gazetted officers.
Advocate Iqbal Mohal on behalf of the PbBC submitted that in April 2005, the then chief minister, Pervaiz Elahi, had announced free medical facility for the lawyers and their dependents in all government hospitals of the Punjab. In 2009, the PbBC filed a writ petition seeking directions for the incumbent government to also allow reimbursement of their medical expenses at private hospitals. In that petition, the then chief justice (CJ) of the LHC, Justice Sayyed Zahid Hussain, had constituted a four-member committee comprising additional advocate general, two members of the PbBC and the Punjab health secretary. The committee had written in its recommendations that it was impossible for the government to reimburse lawyers’ medical expenses.
The committee had also suggested that the Punjab government should be directed to release Rs10 million annually to the PbBC, which it could use to reimburse medical expenses borne by the lawyers. The CJ had directed the government to ensure the implementation of the committee’s recommendations.
On Wednesday, appearing before the court, Khawaja Harris, Advocate General of the Punjab, submitted that the Punjab government had approved a summary for issuing the amount to the PbBC annually. At this the judge directed the government to issue a notification to ensure provision of the amount to the bar. The judge also directed the Punjab Bar Council to devise a policy for the disbursement of the fund.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2010.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ