Islamabad Bar Council to Facilitate Access to Arms Licenses

The Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) will be facilitating provision of arms licenses to advocates enrolled with the council.

According to a notification issued on August 18 by Secretary of the Bar Mirza Amin Tahir, the executive committee of the Islamabad Bar Council has invited interested lawyers to submit their arms license forms, along with copies of their national identity cards as well as the license card issued by the council and two passport size photographs.

The notification has also listed an eligibility criterion; that the applicant must be a resident of Islamabad and be enrolled with the council. Those who already own arms licenses from other provinces are ineligible to apply.

The notification was shared on social media by lawyer Salaar Khan, who wrote, “The Islamabad Bar Council – the body tasked with disciplining advocates – will now be facilitating the provision of firearms to them. This is exactly what lawyers need. Burning tyres, throwing flower pots at courtrooms and starving hospital wards of oxygen just don’t cut it.”

Earlier in April, the IBC caused furor when it sent a letter to the chief commissioner of Islamabad, asking him to stop the staff of hotels and restaurants in the capital from wearing black coats and trousers as it would make them look like lawyers.

At the time Mirza Amin Tahir wrote in the letter even a law graduate was not entitled to wear the uniform of a lawyer until he passed the entry tests and completed his first six months training period before enrolment as an advocate.

“Nobody is allowed to wear the uniform of a lawyer except the advocates enrolled with provincial/Islamabad Bar Council or Pakistan Bar Council,” he wrote. “If anybody is found in the uniform of a lawyer at any place he will be proceeded against under the relevant provision of law.”