KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has asked advocate general of Sindh to strengthen his department by ‘whatever’ paraphernalia and expert manpower he needed and relieve the private lawyers who took no or little interest in defending the government, it emerged on Wednesday.

The provincial government is also not happy with the performance of the heads of different departments who, in many cases, did not file their comments as required by the courts and thus attracted contempt charges.

Officials said in a meeting held last week the chief minister was informed about the cases lost by the government on various issues, mostly cases about property, because of ‘ineffective’ defence by prosecutors, particularly the private lawyers who had been hired for hefty fees.

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Sources privy to the meeting said Mr Shah was not happy with reports that in many cases private lawyers did not appear before the court on one pretext or the other stretching the cases for no good reason at the expense of public exchequer.

The Sindh government, including the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and other municipalities, has more than 9,000 cases to defend or fight against private parties or institutions in courts. More than 3,500 cases pertained to the revenue department only, they said.

The secretaries and other senior officials had been warned that they would be held responsible if the government lost any further cases as it appeared they did not cooperate with attorneys.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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