KARACHI: While the Sindh law department has a sizeable team of notified government law officers under the office of the Sindh Advocate General, the provincial government hired the services of nine private lawyers to pay them a total fee of Rs231.2 million for representing the government in 34 different cases over the past four years.

Read: The sinned files — Corruption in Sindh

According to the reply of provincial Law Minister Zia-ul-Hasan Lanjar given to a call attention notice in the Sindh Assembly, former PPP federal law minister and former Senate chairman Farooq H. Naek alone was paid Rs216.7m to represent the provincial government in as many as 25 cases from 2013 to 2106.

The provincial minister had filed the reply on the call attention notice put up by Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Kamran Akhtar.

He informed the house that nine special lawyers or associates had been hired and a total fee of Rs231.2m was paid to them for representing the government in 34 different cases from 2013 to 2016.

The MQM legislator had asked the law minister to give answer/statement that how much fee had been paid to legal advisers/advocates hired by the government for pleading government cases.

In his reply to the call attention notice, the law minister submitted a detailed statement that carried the names of the hired lawyers and the amount paid to them during the past four years.

The report said that advocate Naek was paid Rs51m for appearing in two cases relating to the health department; Rs27m for land utilisation department’s three cases; Rs21m for finance department’s three cases; Rs18.7m for revenue department’s three cases; Rs19.5m for local government department’s five cases; Rs14.5m for forest and wildlife department’s two cases; Rs4.5m for excise and taxation department’s one case; Rs2m for livestock and fisheries department’s one case; and Rs58.5m for other cases.

Besides Mr Naek, the provincial government paid Rs6.5m to advocate Anwar Mansoor Khan for his appearance in two cases, Hafeez Pirzada law associates were paid Rs1.5m, Yawar Farooqui got Rs2.5m, Khalid Jawed Khan received Rs2m, while Agha Faisal and Faisal Siddiqui were paid Rs500,000 for one case each.

Advocate General Zamir Ghumro was also hired by the Sindh government before his appointment as the provincial government’s chief law officer. He represented the Sindh government in a constitutional petition (No. 4492/2014) against the provincial excise and taxation department and was paid Rs500,000.

Several lawyers who did not wish to be named said that the hiring of private lawyers by the Sindh government was nothing but “political bribe” to the lawyers affiliated with the ruling party.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2017