PESHAWAR, Jan 30: A legal clinic, the first legal training project of its kind, was formally launched here on Saturday to develop the legal skills of law graduates of various law colleges of the NWFP.
The project, funded by the Asian Development Bank, has been initiated by the Aurat Foundation in collaboration with the Institute of Legal Studies, University of Peshawar, Islamia Law College and Frontier Law College.
The objective of the project is to polish and enhance the legal skills of the students who have completed their law education and are poised to enter the profession. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Ahmed Ali Khan, Dean of Faculty of Law, University of Peshawar, said that syllabus for the law degree programme was such that students were not taught and groomed for their practical professional life.
He said the syllabus also lacked new laws. Only two years' theoretical legal education given in the law colleges was not enough to develop legal skills of the students, he observed.
"If this pilot project is successful in enhancing the legal skills of the law graduates, then this project can be incorporated as a part of the syllabus, Mr Khan said. Ayesha Durrani, Project Coordinator, said that initially 40 students of three law colleges would be chosen for the four-month project.
She said the local legal education system did not give the law students an opportunity to develop practical skills, so the legal clinic would not only consist of theoretical courses but also seminars, workshops and practice of providing legal service.
She said free legal aid would be given to poor sections of society. Ms Durrani said that law graduates taking part in this project would acquire practical skills of interviewing a client and better investigation of facts of the case.
They would also learn about legal ethics in the legal clinic, he said. She said the participants of the project would learn about gender, rule of law, court structure, client handling, file reading, case briefing, pre- and post-proceedings of the case, examination, evidence, arguments, police station and registration of FIRs as well as Local Government Ordinance 2001, Police Order 2002.
Other activities during the course, she said, would be meetings with court staff, legal research and provision of legal aid.
