KARACHI: Barrister Zahra S. Vayani has become the first Pakistani woman to be elected in the Bar Presentation Committee at Lincoln’s Inn for four years where she will represent Pakistan.

Speaking to Dawn on Friday, two days after the results of the elections were announced, a very happy Barrister Vayani explained that the Lincoln’s Inn Bar Representative Committee was the only category allowed for candidates from all over the world including the United Kingdom, who happened to have studied law at Lincoln’s Inn.

“I am a barrister at law from Lincoln’s Inn, from where the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinah, too, had passed his law exams,” she said.

About the elections, she explained that they take place annually for a four-year tenure. “This time it was unprecedented as 19 people, including men and women, from all over the world ran in the same category where some six were to be elected this time and over 1,300 voted for their candidates online,” she said.

Barrister Vayani is currently practicing in Pakistan. She runs her own law firm by the name of Zahra S. Vayani & Associates. Her practice areas include but are not limited to employment, family, property, human rights, criminal, banking and intellectual property law.

She is also the founding member and CEO of the Women Lawyers Association and is known to be a strong advocate for the advancement of women in the legal profession.

With her skills and experience, she believes that she can make a valuable contribution to the Bar Presentation Committee and would like to initiate a dialogue about comparison of international laws, climate change, gender imbalance at the bench and the bar as well as the problems faced by overseas students with admissions, scholarships and the Bar Transfer Test.

The term for the six successful candidates will start in January 2023 and end in December 2026.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2022