LAHORE: The Legal Education Committee of Pakistan Bar Council on Friday told the Lahore High Court that Law-GAT (general assessment test) would soon be declared mandatory for enrolment of the law graduates from foreign countries as well.

Committee chairman Azam Nazir Tarar stated this before the court of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali during hearing of a number of petitions challenging the condition of the test, outsourcing to the National Testing Service (NTS), introduced by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

Presently, law graduates from national institutions were required to pass the Law-GAT. However, Mr Tarar undertook before the court that the bar was going to enforce the condition on foreign graduates as well.

Representing the petitioners, Advocate Sheraz Zaka argued that the PBC had declared the NTS test mandatory for getting the practice license. He termed the condition discriminatory and against the rights of the license seekers.

He said provincial bar councils were already conducting the tests from the applicants before issuing them the practice license. Therefore, he said, the condition of NTS put by the PBC was an additional burden on the candidates.

The committees’ chairman told the court that the decision was taken to maintain standard of the legal professionals in the wake of mushroom growth of substandard law institutions.

The court in light of the statement of the bar disposed of the petitions.

DETAILS SOUGHT: The Lahore High Court on Friday directed the Foreign Affairs Ministry to submit details of Pakistani citizens languishing in foreign jails.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah also sought report about any action taken by the government for the release of its citizens imprisoned in jails of different countries.

The judge was hearing a petition of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a non-profit law firm, filed on behalf of families of Pakistani migrant workers facing executions in the Middle East in particular.

The counsel for the JPP stated that the Pakistan government openly allowed its citizens to be killed on foreign soil while simultaneously profiting from their hard work. He questioned the government’s failure to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens imprisoned in the foreign prisons.

The counsel sought direction for the government to provide support to those Pakistanis currently in jails in foreign countries and facing imminent execution.

The judge would resume hearing on Jan 16, 2015.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2014