KARACHI: A former vice president of the Sindh Bar Council has moved the Sindh High Court against the alleged financial irregularities and unauthorised payments of millions of rupees in the past 10 years in the statutory body that issued licences to law practitioners.

The petition was filed by Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed who impleaded the SBC, advocate general, provincial law and parliamentary affairs secretary and Pakistan Bar Council as respondents.

A division bench of the high court would take up the matter for preliminary hearing on May 5.

The petitioner said he was a practising lawyer of the Supreme Court and had previously served as the president of the Karachi Bar Association in 2014 and as vice chairman of the Sindh Bar Council in 2016.

He said the present council including him was elected for a five-year term in 2014 and he resigned as member of the executive council on March 15 mainly over the failure of the SBC to properly fulfil its statutory functions and responsibilities.

He said that no budget of the SBC was presented before the full council for its approval or authorization for the past several years as required under Rule 30 of the SBC rules.

Moreover, the petitioner said, the council was required to maintain books of accounts in the prescribed manner which must be audited periodically by a chartered accountant and the audited accounts along with audit report were to be sent to the Pakistan Bar Council under the law.

He stated in the petition that the maximum travelling allowance (TA) and daily allowance (DA) permitted to a council member for attending council/committee meeting was reimbursement of economy class airfare/first class train fare and Rs500 per day respectively under Rule 75 and 76 of the SBC rules.

“However, on June 20, 2015 the Council’s Executive Committee decided, on its own accord, to grant a composite sum of up to Rs24,000 per day rather than making the same subject to production of air/train ticket,” he added.

Barrister Salahuddin said the committee decision also permitted for payment of additional daily allowance if a council member arrived a day earlier than the meeting or departed a date after the meeting. “This has led to a situation where some council members have received up to Rs48,000 for attending a single meeting without even having to produce any proof of means of travel.”

As a result, he said, in 2016 alone, an exorbitant sum of Rs4,269,525, approximately about 25 per cent of the total expenditure of the council, was expended merely on the TA/DA of council members.

The former SBC vice president said that another example of expending money of the council in a manner not authorized by law was the expenditure of Rs9,575,940 just on staff salaries and a further sum of Rs1,194,368 on staff conveyance allowance in 2016, that amounted to around 50 per cent of the council’s total expenditure.

He also pointed out that the council’s staff was far in excess of the requirements and various unqualified and untrained persons were accommodated in different positions.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2017