ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Monday delayed a move of the federal government to amend a law which would empower it to provide Knancial assistance to high court, district and tehsil bar associations and councils.

In a meeting of the committee held in the Parliament House, its members discussed amendments to the existing law.

Senator Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi, a member of the committee, expressed concern over the government`s move.

`We do not want the federal government to exercise unnecessary influence through the law ministry at district and tehsil levels because this domain should remain with provincial governments,` he said Under the current law the federal government can give grants and aid to the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Supreme Court Bar Council while financial support to bar councils and associations of high courts and lower judiciary is within the purview of the respective provincial government.

The amendment to the `Legal Practitionersand Bar Council (Amendment), 2016, has already been approved by the National Assembly.

The chairman of the Senate committee, Senator Mohammad Javed Abbasi, expressed reservations over the amendment.

`Why is this amendment needed?` he asked Law Minister Zahid Hamid and Adviser to the PM on Law Barrister Zafarullah Khan.

Barrister Zafarullah informed the committee that there was a demand from district and tehsil bars for grants because sometimes provincial governments had their financial constraints.

He said it had been a practice in the past that the federal government had provided financial assistance to district and tehsil bars.

However, he added, the current government by following the law had not yet provided any such grant to district and tehsil bars.

The committee was informed that there was a case pending in the Public Accounts Committee against the law minister of the previous government.

`The former law minister had granted Rs800 million to various district and tehsil bars. It was illegal and there is an audit para still pending against it,` Mr Hamid said.

But the statements of both the minister andthe adviser failed to convince the chairman of the committee who said there was a need to have versions of all stakeholders.

Finally, it was decided that the committee would invite representatives of high court bars and bar councils and associations from several districts and tehsils to have their point of view.

In another agenda item of the meeting, the committee amended the legal requirements for a lawyer to become a `standing counsel` the lawyer hired to fight cases for the government.

The National Assembly has passed an amendment, according to which, the experience of a standing counsel will be reduced from the existing limit of 10 years to five years.

However, after deliberations the Senate committee said that the experience should be seven years.

The amendment to the law will be forwarded to the Senate and if it is cleared by the upper house as seven years then the same would have to be referred back to the National Assembly.

The committee approved another amendment pertaining to civil suits in the federal capital only, as all civil cases would go to district courts instead of the current law where cases involving an amount of Rs100 million or higher are directly filed in the Islamabad High Court.