Centre, Sindh urged to grant Rs50m for lawyers relief fund

The Sindh Bar Council on Wednesday requested Prime Minister Imran Khan and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to grant at least Rs50 million to the SBC relief fund to enable the council to facilitate its needy members who were not attending court due to the coronavirus lockdown.

In their letters to the PM and the CM, SBC Vice Chairman Syed Haider Imam Rizvi said the SBC have registered over 38,000 members who have a “proud history of continuous struggle for the rule of the law and the Constitution of Pakistan”.

He said the SBC was representing lawyers not only practicing in the Sindh High Court but also the lawyers practicing in various districts all across the province. The proposed precautionary measures such as the lockdown, the closure of business activities and the public transport and the suspension of the courts’ most work had resulted created serious fiscal issues for those lawyers who earned their bread and butter on a daily basis, he added.

I this crucial time, he said, they had decided to establish the SBC lawyers relief fund with an amount of two million rupees. He said the SBC was unable to meet the legitimate needs of the legal fraternity without the financial support and backing of the federal and provincial governments.

Rizvi requested the federal and provincial governments to announce a relief package for the members of the legal fraternity in order to alleviate the sufferings of its members.