KARACHI, Nov 10: The Supreme Court Bar Association will sue the State Bank and commercial banks for credit card bar on lawyers. Talking to Dawn on Thursday, newly-elected SCBA President Malik Mohammad Qayyum said lawyers and journalists had been put on the negative list for the purpose of credit card facilities and this excluded them from the benefits of modern banking. They could not buy cars and other necessities on credit. The banks’ policy or practice was discriminatory and violative of the fundamental rights of lawyers.

The SCBA has served a notice on the State Bank, which regulates the banking system, and commercial banks individually. If the policy remained unchanged, a petition would be filed in the Supreme Court in its original human rights jurisdiction, the SCBA chief said.

He said he met the chief justice recently and made a number of suggestions to solve the problems being faced by the legal fraternity. The SC registries in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta should either be abolished or made duly functional. Dysfunctional registries lowered the dignity of the court. At present, the registries were dealing with petitions for leave to appeals while regular hearings were held at Islamabad.

There were, he added, no facilities for litigants and lawyers even at the principal seat in Islamabad. The SC building in Islamabad had no provision for a bar room. Lawyers and litigants have been accommodated in a room adjacent to police room.

Case management, the SCBA chief said, left a lot to be desired and avoidable delay in the disposal of cases. A single judge could earlier grant an urgent application but they were being dealt by two-member benches for the past few years. By the time urgent matters are fixed and heard, they lose their urgency and become by and large infructuous.

About ordinary cases, he said, lawyers should be given seven days’ notice of listing of their cases. If a lawyer, particularly from Karachi or Quetta, is told only a day in advance, he might not be able to reach Islamabad due to non-availability of seats in flights. It would be a lot more convenient for the lawyers and litigants if all cases were heard at the registries.

About measures for improvement, he said he would approach the Capital Development Authority for allotment of a plot adjoining the SC building in Islamabad for construction of a fully-equipped Bar complex.

The authorities would also be asked to build a rest house for lawyers in Islamabad. Lawyers were being provided free medical treatment in all Punjab government hospitals and the federal government and other provincial governments would be asked to follow suit. He would also seek 20 per cent quota for lawyers in housing schemes. The PIA would be requested to reserve seats for lawyers.

A dispensary for lawyers, he said, had started functioning at the principal seat and the registries would have the facility in due course. He had also donated computers for an SCBA website. The association would be publishing a quarterly review.

Malik Qayyum said the SCBA had remained politicized far too long and it would now concentrate more on lawyers’ problems without compromising on the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law. The judiciary should be independent and there should be no re-employment of judges. The retirement age should be the same for superior court judges, he demanded.