‘Free legal aid should only be provided to the deserving’
July 21, 2011
Karachi
Over the past week, the City Courts has seen little, if any, activity as lawyers had been observing a boycott against offices of NGOs within the court and jail premises for the purpose of providing free legal aid. Surprisingly, other lawyers who offer their counsel free of charge and are associated with various NGOs working for public good also appear to be on the same page as their protesters.
Since July 12, lawyers have been demanding the removal of the offices of non governmental organisations (NGO) run by Justice (retired) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice (retired) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui and have gone on an indefinite strike. Likewise, lawyers who also work as social activists seem to support the removal of the offices as well as the NGO’s service of providing free legal aid to be restricted to women and children only.
Lawyer Ghulam Madni Memon, who is children’s rights activist working for the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), believed that NGOs should only focus on providing free legal aid to vulnerable groups.
“Women and children are in need of help the most unlike criminal adults charged for heinous crimes. Civil society should serve the destitute.”
He said that the aforementioned retired judges initially offered free legal aid to women and juveniles but later extended their NGO’s clientele to the general public, which had caused him to reconsider the merits of their mission.
Lawyer Farida Moten echoed Memon’s views and she too is working for public welfare through the War against Rape, which has been providing legal aid to rape victims since 1989. “The work of an NGO is to eliminate evil from society and not to let it flourish. Therefore, civil society should work for the betterment of the people and not for the protection of criminals.”
Furthermore, Moten was of the opinion that a lawyer should not impose his or her services on a person who was seeking legal aid, which was why the offices concerned should be removed from court premises. “For years, we have been providing legal services to rape victims but have never faced opposition as we do not force anyone to use our legal council.”
Speaking on behalf of lawyer and activist Ansar Burney, his brother Sarim called for the immediate removal of these NGO offices from the jail and court premises. “Only some NGOs providing free legal aid have set up offices in the courts or jails while all the others have their offices located elsewhere. If a person needed affordable legal aid he or she would not care how far it was.”
He said that the retired judges of the superior courts which ran these offices should be questioned as to how much they helped the underprivileged when they enjoyed judicial power. “The livelihoods of hundreds of lawyers are at stake, as these NGOs are snatching clientele from lawyers who rely on this business on a daily basis.”
Lawyer Taranum Khan of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which once also provided free legal aid, said that since the NGOs concerned were initially formed to support women and children, they should stick to this mandate.
“Murderers and other criminals are provided support under the umbrella of free legal aid for the underprivileged. And while these undeserving people were being helped, those who were truly in need of these services were left out,” she said.
Over the past week, the City Courts has seen little, if any, activity as lawyers had been observing a boycott against offices of NGOs within the court and jail premises for the purpose of providing free legal aid. Surprisingly, other lawyers who offer their counsel free of charge and are associated with various NGOs working for public good also appear to be on the same page as their protesters.
Since July 12, lawyers have been demanding the removal of the offices of non governmental organisations (NGO) run by Justice (retired) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice (retired) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui and have gone on an indefinite strike. Likewise, lawyers who also work as social activists seem to support the removal of the offices as well as the NGO’s service of providing free legal aid to be restricted to women and children only.
Lawyer Ghulam Madni Memon, who is children’s rights activist working for the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), believed that NGOs should only focus on providing free legal aid to vulnerable groups.
“Women and children are in need of help the most unlike criminal adults charged for heinous crimes. Civil society should serve the destitute.”
He said that the aforementioned retired judges initially offered free legal aid to women and juveniles but later extended their NGO’s clientele to the general public, which had caused him to reconsider the merits of their mission.
Lawyer Farida Moten echoed Memon’s views and she too is working for public welfare through the War against Rape, which has been providing legal aid to rape victims since 1989. “The work of an NGO is to eliminate evil from society and not to let it flourish. Therefore, civil society should work for the betterment of the people and not for the protection of criminals.”
Furthermore, Moten was of the opinion that a lawyer should not impose his or her services on a person who was seeking legal aid, which was why the offices concerned should be removed from court premises. “For years, we have been providing legal services to rape victims but have never faced opposition as we do not force anyone to use our legal council.”
Speaking on behalf of lawyer and activist Ansar Burney, his brother Sarim called for the immediate removal of these NGO offices from the jail and court premises. “Only some NGOs providing free legal aid have set up offices in the courts or jails while all the others have their offices located elsewhere. If a person needed affordable legal aid he or she would not care how far it was.”
He said that the retired judges of the superior courts which ran these offices should be questioned as to how much they helped the underprivileged when they enjoyed judicial power. “The livelihoods of hundreds of lawyers are at stake, as these NGOs are snatching clientele from lawyers who rely on this business on a daily basis.”
Lawyer Taranum Khan of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which once also provided free legal aid, said that since the NGOs concerned were initially formed to support women and children, they should stick to this mandate.
“Murderers and other criminals are provided support under the umbrella of free legal aid for the underprivileged. And while these undeserving people were being helped, those who were truly in need of these services were left out,” she said.
