Legal Aid Authority must be constituted for deserving litigants: minister

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Law and Justice Dr Muhammad Farogh Naseem chaired a meeting of the committee constituted by the federal government to prepare recommendations for setting up a new legal aid mechanism for the poor and vulnerable segments of the society.

During the meeting, Farogh Naseem suggested to constitute a central Legal Aid Authority with sub-committees at provincial levels to provide free legal aid to deserving litigants who might otherwise not be able to defend their genuine legal rights or interests due to limited financial resources, says a press release. The said Legal Aid Authority shall work under the supervision of the Ministry of Human Rights in terms of the rules of business.

In the meeting, it was decided by the committee that the ToRs and the draft bill of the proposed Legal Aid Authority shall be finalised within two weeks by the Ministry of Human Rights, where after the draft, the bill will be placed before the committee for review by the relevant stakeholders. It was also agreed that a core group of lawyers will be nominated to work on pro bono basis for ensuring the implementations of the proposals.

Dr Shireen Mazari, Minister for Human Rights, Shahzad Akbar, SAPM on Accountability, secretary Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan and other officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice also attended the meeting.