KARACHI: Despite directives of the apex court for the government not to engage private lawyers to plea in cases in courts, the provincial law department has paid Rs44.704 million to private lawyers during fiscal 2022-23 after engaging them regardless of the fact that it has sizeable teams of law officers.

According to a consolidated audit report of the auditor general of Pakistan on the accounts of the Sindh government, the offices of the prosecutor general Sindh and advocate general Sindh, functioning under the administrative control of the law department, had paid Rs36.810 million and Rs7.894 million respectively to private lawyers on account of litigation costs.

It said that as per directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in civil appeal No.1216 of 2015 out of civil petition No.3054/2015 vide letter dated Feb 11, 2017, the government had been stopped from engaging the private advocates/counsel.

“During audit of the following offices of law, parliamentary affair & criminal prosecution department of the government of Sindh, for the financial year 2022-23, it was observed that the payment of Rs44.704 million was made to private advocates/counsel on account of law charges by engaging private advocates/counsel occurred in violation of the Supreme Court standing orders and by hiring contractual employees/legal prosecutors with undisclosed selection criteria without keeping their appointment orders on record and without terms of reference,” it added.

In February 2017 apex court disallowed govt to engage private counsel

The audit report also maintained that the absence of criteria for legal fees/charges made it challenging to verify payment authenticity and information on lawyers’ performance, including case presentations and court decisions, was not available.

The matter was reported to the authorities concerned in August 2023 and in January 2024 the departmental accounts committee (DAC) was held and the provincial authorities stated that contractual employees/legal prosecutors were appointed by the home department with the approval of the Sindh chief minister, it added.

The report also said that budgets transferred in 2016 for special prosecutors for Pakistan Rangers and private advocates were approved by the chief minister while the payments were made based on salary certificates and notifications.

It stated that as per reply of the authorities concerned, the services of private lawyers specifically “advocates on record” were hired primarily for administrative tasks in handling case paperwork while the law officers enrolled by the apex court managed court appearances.

“The DAC directed to produce relevant record for verification. In both cases, the managements did not produce the requisite record for the verification till finalisation of this report,” the audit report concluded.

In February 2017, in a judgement handed down and authored by the incumbent Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the Supreme Court had held as improper the practice of engaging private advocates by the government to plead their cases and called for an immediate cessation of the practice.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2024