Legal studies: New school building inaugurated at LUMS

Building comprises auditoriums and a replica courtroom

LAHORE:

A new building for the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law (SAHSOL) at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) was inaugurated on Saturday by Governor Rafique Rajwana.

The building comprises auditoriums, discussion rooms, faculty offices, meeting rooms and a replica of the courtroom of the Lahore High Court chief justice.

Syed Babur Ali, Dr Pervez Hassan, Justice Tassaduq Jilani, Justice Umer Atta Bandial and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah spoke at the inauguration ceremony of the three-storied building.

Work on a law school at the LUMS had started back in 2013. It had grown out of the Department of Law and Policy, functioning since 2004.

The school offers a five-year joint BA-LLB (Hons) undergraduate programme which is accredited by the Pakistan Bar Council.

Addressing the ceremony, Hassan said that the new building had been completed in just 17 months. “Students will work on the much-needed legal aspects of environment, terrorism, intellectual property rights and foreign investment. There will be inquiries and discussions, to accommodate dissent and promote tolerance,” he said.

He thanked families of General (r) Habiuallah Khan, Dawood Group, Packages Group, Sheikh Ahmed Irshad, Hassan Irfan and others for their support in completing the project.

Pro-Chancellor Syed Babar Ali said that the purpose of establishing law schools was to produce future Quaids, Iqbals and Gandhis of South Asia. He said the school would serve for legal reforms in the country.

Vice Chancellor Sohail Naqvi said the school would provide solutions for legal issues in the country while working in close collaboration with the judiciary. Naqvi said the LUMS legal aid clinic would work actively.

He emphasised that 40 LUMS students had recently worked with judiciary as interns.

“This school will partner with the judiciary. There will be formal internships and the students will go to the field at district level. This will help reform the judicial system,” Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2015.