LAHORE, March 18: The Punjab Bar Council has issued licences to the new entrants to practice law without meeting statutory provisions for almost 30 years. It is only about three years ago when the council started conducting a written test, which is required under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973.

The anomaly is said to be the outcome of the council's failure to work out the rules and regulations under the act since its enactment. The first such written test was taken in 2002 as the task of framing rules, starting two years earlier, was accomplished.

Around 5,000 new lawyers have been issued licences for legal practice after mandatory written tests, six of which have so far been held and the seventh is due tomorrow (Saturday).

Senior lawyers understand that the PBC's failure to frame rules for entrance tests is because most of the leaders in the community keep their political ambitions ahead of the profession.

Every time an election to any bar forum is held, hundreds of members are enrolled only because certain leaders want newcomers to vote for them. The recent Lahore High Court Bar Association elections also saw about 2,200 new lawyers becoming the bar members.

As the rules have since been framed, a syllabi has also been prescribed with the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Pakistan Penal Code, the Limitations Act, the Law of Evidence, the Court Fee Act, the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act and the Constitution of Pakistan as major subjects. All the new entrants are now to pass a written test on these subjects.

The anomaly was pointed out by Syed Zahid Husain Bokhari, a former Lahore High Court judge, at a ceremony sponsored by the Punjab Bar Council on Thursday. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry gave away prizes to those new entrants to the profession, who have secured distinction in five such tests since 2002.

This is the first time that such a ceremony was organized and the PBC had a cogent reason to be proud of such an academic activity. Almost all the courses have been designed by the former judge, who otherwise has been praising the council leadership since 2000-01.

The first written test was conducted by the council's leadership, headed by Ramzan Chaudhry in 2002. The simple but impressive ceremony was attended among others by Justice M Javed Buttar, Justice Syed Tasaddaq Husain Jilani, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Advocate-General Syed Shabbar Raza Razvi, council's vice-chairperson Tanvirur Rehman Randhawa and chairperson of its executive committee, Pervez Inayat Malik.