LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khan Khosa said on Saturday there was a time when the legal profession used to enjoy a great respect, however, things changed unfortunately.

Speaking at a private law college, he said all professions were noble but there were three professions, which were generally considered to be noblest of all professions and they were divinity, law and medicine. He said down the ages these professions had been looked up with reverence because of the activity they indulged in.

In divinity, he said, holy personages treated souls of people, doctors dealt with the body of individuals but on the other hands the lawyers dealt with the ailments of a society ranging from economic criminal, property issues civil rights.

So the range of activities the lawyers indulged in was far bigger than the range of activities indulged in the other two noble professions — the medicine and the divinity, added the chief justice.

He said the holy personages and doctors treated one person at a time while a lawyer served rights of a whole society by picking up a fight for their client, which was a far much more nobler cause than the other two causes – divinity and medicine.

“If I were to rate one I would rate legal profession as the noblest that a human being can think of,” he said.

The chief justice also shared with the audience memories of his childhood when he witnessed tremendous respect for lawyers and the judges due to nobility attached to the legal profession only.

He said unfortunately things had changed although there was a recent period around 2007 to 2009 when the legal community in Pakistan earned more respect as they championed a very big cause of independence of judiciary. However, he regretted that the story after all that was not all that rosy.

Referring to a quote of famous English jurist Lord Denning, Chief Justice Khosa advised the law students to have command over history, mathematics and literature to become a good lawyer.

He said in the current real age a lawyer needed to have a much more well-rounded personality as they were now supposed to deal with multiple statutes and other disciplines in courts. “Unfortunately, in this country every social, economic and political issue ultimately ends up in court of law,” said the chief justice.

ASSOCIATION: A meeting of 32 private law colleges from Punjab established an association and elected its first cabinet in voting held at a private hotel. Safdar Pirzada was elected president of the Law Colleges Association while Falak Sher as secretary, Shahid Gillani and Sheikh Tanvir as VPs and Tauqeet Buttar as finance secretary.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2019