THE legal profession has always been held in high esteem. Every person needs a lawyer at some point in life. If a person is arrested, only a lawyer can rescue him. When someone wishes to buy a property, a lawyer is needed to draft the contract, ensuring that the terms of the contract are favourable to the client. Likewise, setting up businesses may also require the expertise of a lawyer for legal requirements. Divorcing couples need legal representation to secure their respective interests. If any person is wrongfully terminated from employment, he also needs a lawyer to get his job back.

But in the last few years, a few black sheep among the lawyers fraternity have earned a bad reputation for the profession due to their hooliganism and high-handedness out of courts. We have witnessed many incidents in which lawyers tainted their own profession.

Unfortunately, young and senior lawyers alike are seen involved in such malpractices. Such lawyers are a disgrace to the profession.

As if this was not enough, now we hear about some ‘lawyers’ from Punjab with fake degrees. Those who want to become a lawyer today have to go through the law admission test (LAT) and the law graduate assessment test (Law-GAT). Unfortunately, there was no such system in the past, and that explains why there are so many lawyers today and why some of them are even fake lawyers. One is shocked to review the statistics on fake lawyers who have been booted out in the last few years by the various bar councils.

Recently, after the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) elections, some of the winning candidates were found having fake degrees, as they had fake verifications. Even people with over 20 years of legal practice were found having fake degrees.

The PbBC executive committee has removed their names from the roll of advocates and ordered criminal proceedings as per Legal Practitioner Bar Council Act 1973.

It is evident that when an institution has no checks and balances and no accountability, it loses credibility. I hope strict action will be taken against these fake lawyers who have damaged the dignity of this noble profession.

Awais Gilani
Lahore

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2020