KARACHI: Black coats, folders and case files, courtrooms ... young law students from various institutions of Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, Peshawar, and Gujrat looked confident enough to prosecute as well as defend their cases during the opening of the two-day annual law moot, the Legal Eagle 1.0, organised by the Law Society of the Lahore Grammar School (LGS) International Degree Programme (University of London) here on Friday.

Each year, the moot, or trial case simulation on the lines of the popular Model United Nations, or MUN, brought together participants from around the country to engage in debates over national or international legal issues while polishing their drafting skills and practicing their oral advocacy as they defend their positions in the attendance of high calibre lawyers or judges, who have achieved honourable statuses in the national legal landscape.

This year’s chief guest was retired Justice Mohammed Ather Saeed, former judge of the Supreme Court, and a tax lawyer before that.

The fictitious moot problem for this year’s competition was centred on the issue of ‘War Crimes — the Responsibility of Leaders in War Crimes and Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court’.

There were 60 students broken into 15 teams representing their respective educational institutions, which included high schools as well as universities including LGS, Beaconhouse, Dadabhoy Institute of Higher Education, Szabist, etc.

Speaking to the participating students, retired Justice Saeed said that it was not a question of winning or losing but “a case of how you played the game”.

“You may be getting ‘A’ grades in class but your colleague who gets ‘B’ will be far better in arguing in court than you. That’s why you need to go to court to learn something new every day,” he advised.

“You should also know your judge because every judge has different thinking, a different approach and attitude,” he said, while sharing an anecdote to rest his case here.

He shared a story about a lawyer named Saleem who knew well what he was up against when he presented six points as the beginning of his arguments, which were all rejected. Then he came to his seventh and strongest point and his appeal was allowed. Everyone in court wondered why he had not come up with that point initially and he said he knew that the judge was not willing to give him the time of day thinking him to be too full of himself. So he saved that point for last as by that time the judge was also happy to have rejected so many of his arguments.

“Never irritate a judge,” he added. “I was appealing a case, which was also going in my favour until the judge called me ‘Ather Saeed Khan’ to which I retorted, saying I was not a ‘Khan’. My slip of tongue lost me the case,” he shared another anecdote, adding that one should always treat a judge respectfully but also knows the facts besides using common sense. “Use your mind, don’t be biased, as judges also don’t like biased lawyers,” he shared from the viewpoint of both a judge and a lawyer.

Mrs Flora Haidri, Head of LGS, Islamabad, recent LLB Hons graduates Mohammed Afaz Khan and Sardar Nadir also spoke.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022