Men of law?

Fleeting moments

After the successful movement for the restoration of former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the lawyers’ community acquired an overbearing role for itself. Often the news is disconcerting. Lawyers locking up a judge in his own court or a civil servant in her office are symptomatic of conduct unbecoming by the men of the law.

Traditionally, people count lawyers among the educated segment of society and upholders of the law of the land. Since the overall moral degradation of society has had a profound effect on all walks of public life, lawyers were to be no exception. But their unruly behaviour stands out more distinctly compared with other professionals since they are expected to stand by the law.

Some years ago, the Bar Council adapted a procedure in arrangement with Nadra to issue new CNICs to lawyers after verifying their degrees. The lawyers had to obtain new CNICs with their profession explicitly written on them. Only a very small percentage of lawyers applied for the card. There were lawyers who didn’t apply for the new card, fearing their fake degrees would be detected and they would be barred from legal practice.

Faking of degrees is not restricted to the legal profession alone; other professions suffer from it too, for instance, the fake medical doctors. Quite a few of these degree-fakers make good money whether in medicine or law.

Some years ago, there lived a doctor in my home district Dera Ghazi Khan. He had a lucrative practice. One of his friends narrated how he along with the doctor once happened to pass by a graveyard and the doctor covered his face. When asked why, the doctor confessed he was ashamed of the dead of whom many had been his patients. And that he had learned his trade by experimenting on them. “Alas! Their luck ran out and they reported to their Maker”, the doc said dolefully.

Those in the legal profession claim that mostly fake lawyers go on rampage in the courts, beat up policemen on duty, and misbehave with the judges. A leading lawyer suggested that all lawyers must obtain new CNICs with their profession written on it. The practice must be made mandatory to thwart fake lawyers’ hooliganism in the courts.

There must be many cases of degree-faking, but there was one reported in 2011 that stands out for its sheer ingenuity and audacity. A clerk of a senior lawyer in district Mianwali managed to enrol himself as a lawyer after the death of his boss and started practising at the Mianwali District Bar Association. Later, he became an advocate of the Lahore High Court and acquired life membership of its Bar Association. However, his overwhelming ambition got the better of him and he contested election for president district bar. He lost. Then he made blunders back to back. He challenged his rival’s victory in the court wherein his own law degree was questioned and found to be fake.

While hearing an appeal early this year, CJP Anwer Zaheer Jamali pointed out how “a large number of fake lawyers who do not even have intermediate-level education are engaged in legal practice.” Reportedly 400 fake lawyers practise in district courts of Islamabad. This was revealed when two fake women lawyers were caught practising law and cases registered against them. In our days in schools and colleges, cheaters bore an indelible stigma hard to wipe. The common saying was ‘cheaters never prosper’. Now cheaters and fakers prosper more than their peers with genuine credentials. Times have indeed changed.

We are quick to criticise weaknesses but not when highlighting positive steps. Chief Justice Punjab Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, a man of impeccably integrity, has introduced some far-reaching reforms in the judicial system. On becoming chief justice PHC, he vowed to eradicate corruption in the judiciary and improve its functioning. To improve competence of judges of lower courts, he sent many of them on judicial training.

Justice Shah would earn public gratitude if he succeeds in eliminating corruption in the judicial system, keeping fake lawyers out of the court precincts, and expediting settlement of cases pending in the courts for years.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.

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