The Standing Committee on Law and Justice in the National Assembly approved the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in its meeting held in Islamabad on September 15.
The bill, moved by MNA Mohsin Dawar, received unanimous backing from the Pakistan Bar Council as well as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council. The Ministry of Law and Justice did not oppose the bill.
The bill provides one seat to a member from the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (former Federally Administered Tribal Areas) in the KP bar council.
Talking to The Friday Times, Dawar said the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not represented in the provincial as well as the Pakistan bar councils.
“I demanded one member from each merged district. But it was the position of the KP bar council that the existing rules did not allow for this. They said that currently lawyers from these areas were practicing in adjacent districts and had not yet moved their enrolments to the newly merged districts of KP. But based on existing numbers, they were willing to provide one seat to a member,” he said.
“Something is better than nothing,” he added. “We will push for more members in the future.”
