Zafar Aziz Chaudhry
LEGAL practice is one of the noblest and most challenging of all professions. No blest, because it seeks relief and justice to the wronged persons within the parameters of law, and challenging because it is the hardest profession requiring extreme mental and physical labour and hard-work without any perks or support from government or any other agency. A new entrant enters the profession with dreams of becoming great personages who started their careers as lawyers, like Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jeffersonetc, but to his dismay, he finds that despite having a professional law degree he has no office to sit, no staff to aid or assist him in his task which too he has to earn as a part of his profession after he gains sufficient recognition as a lawyer.
In the initial years of his legal practice, he has to work as an apprentice under some senior lawyer, who engages him in odd tasks of seeking adjournments from the courts, or making attendance on behalf of his senior. This work does not involve his real performance as a lawyer, and for a number of years this routine continues till he attracts his own clients and only then his real task of preparing his cases and arguing them before the court starts. During all this long period, he works, so to say, in thunder, sunshine or rain with little or no earning to support his family. Fearing this up-hill task, most entrants leave this profession.
Those who continue as young lawyers are frustrated and suffer from various complexes; hence it is no surprise if they resort to violence and behave most un-civilly on petty matters which they feel have hurt their ego. By their un-professional behaviour they in fact display their grouse against this entire order which has kept them poor and jobless.
As against them, other professionals like doctors and accountants etc after getting their degrees are paid for their house jobs during their period of internships from their institutions where they serve. Only young lawyers are a segment of professionals who have to eke out their livelihood without any subsistence or help from any quarter.
During their apprenticeship, they are not paid any stipend, salary or allowance. During the last two decades, we have witnessed several shameful incidents where judges have been besieged and beaten, court rooms have been severely damaged, roads have been blocked, policemen are also beaten or maltreated and even the entire civic life has been brought to a standstill. Newspapers and all social media have bitterly condemned their un-professional behaviour, but no one has ever tried to find out what has really gone wrong with this community in black robes to overnight turn into the most diabolical force on earth.
To look after the interests of legal fraternity in Pakistan, two enactments, namely the Legal Practitioner and Bar Council Act 1973 and Pakistan Legal and Practitioner Bar Council Rules 1976 lay down provisions empowering Pakistan Bar Council to enact rules and mechanism for patronizing and reforming the lot of lawyers. It is most regretful to point out that the Pakistan Bar Council or their local counterparts have nearly done nothing to ameliorate the worst conditions prevailing in the legal fraternity. Bench and Baralways coexist.
When government constructs new court buildings, it is imperative to make provisions for the chambers of the lawyers, close to the court premises which may be allotted to them at certain rents. One chamber may be shared by two or more lawyers. If it is not done, the lawyers are forced to encroach on spaces which do not belong to them. And this breeds a lot of rancour and frustration among the lawyers which turns into ugly situations every now and then. The Lahore High Court has observed that in case of any violation, and encroachment thereof, the judiciary especially the superior courts of the country by means of Article 199(2) and 184(4), have been made responsible to provide remedy to those citizens, whose rights have been encroached by the State, or its functionaries.
It is surprising that stipends are allowed to new entrants in medical profession, accountants and other professionals for rendering services in house-jobs/internships but the fresh legal practitioners are deprived of any stipend or salary. This is discrimination and a blatant violation of Articles 3, 4, 14, 18, 25, 37 and 38 of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973. It is lamentable that the Council of Common Interests has not even paid heed to this issue of public importance. Under Articles 153 and 154 of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, the Council of Common Interests is supposed to look after the welfare of young law graduates by formulating the policy on determination of stipend/salary.
The Federal and Provincial Bar Councils have also been empowered to take stern disciplinary action against lawyers who indulge in hooliganism and violate the sanctity of courts and judicial officers, but Bar Councils have failed to take disciplinary action against the delinquents. Unless legal rights of young lawyers are strictly enforced by proper diligence and planning, the status quo is bound to stay. We will keep on facing such ugly situations every now and then, and our judicial system will be subject to mockery and ridicule in the entire world.
—The writer is former member of Provincial Civil Service and the author of two books, ‘Moments in Silence’, and ‘My Inner Landscape’.
