ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has selected two teams to represent Pakistan in the regional and international round of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) moot court competitions.

This was stated by ICRC Legal Adviser Humaira Ahmad while announcing the team to the media here on Monday.

She said the two teams, comprising three members each and one back-up, were selected after a national round was held in Islamabad from September 4-8.

The jury consisted of ICRC Deputy Head of Delegation Bertrand Lamon, Legal Adviser Humaira Ahmed, Master Trainer Frederic Gouin and Dissemination Officer Naghib Khan.

The two teams were selected from among 35 law and international relations students representing public and private universities of Pakistan.

Ms Ahmad said only three students would participate in each competition.

“The fourth student is sort of a back-up in case any student cannot make it to the competition for some reason,” she said.

The adviser announced that the team which would participate in Henry Dunant Regional Moot Court competition consists of Hajra Saboor and Rahila Mustafa of International Islamic University (IIU), Islamabad, Ali Jawed Bajwa of Quaid-i-Azam Law College Lahore, while the runner-up is Shakeel Pasha of Government College Lahore.

“The regional moot is to be held from October 27-29 and teams from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Iran besides Pakistan will participate in the competition,” she added.

The ICRC legal adviser said the other team would represent Pakistan in a prestigious Jean Pictet Law Moot Court Competition in March 2007.

The team comprises Hamza Randhawa of The Institute of Legal Studies Lahore, Maryam Raza Zaidi of Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Fareed Yaldram of Pakistan College of Law Lahore. The runner-up is Rana Shehryar of Government College Lahore. Pakistani team has been participating in the Jean Pictet Competition since 1999 and is considered to be one of the best teams.