ISLAMABAD: Eight members of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) have rejected proposed amendments seeking to make the council’s proceedings and deliberations confidential, saying the regulatory body of the legal fraternity should instead operate with transparency.
In a letter to the PBC secretary, the eight members Abid Shahid Zuberi, Muhammad Maqsood Buttar, M. ShafqatMehmood-Chauhan,MunirAhmed Kakar, Abdul Sattar Khan, Salman Akram Raja, Salahuddin Ahmed and Q azi Muhammad Arshad suggested that instead of classified meetings, all proceedings of the council should be open, since the council is an elected body comprising statutory representatives of the entire legal fraternity.’We are not a private club or some secretive government agency,’ said the two-page letter, a copy of which has also been sent to Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan, who is ex-officio chairman of the PBC.
The letter emphasised that all proceedings, deliberations and business, as a matter of general rule, must be open, transparent and available for scrutiny by the more than 100,000 lawyers whom the members represent, as well as the public at large.
The PBC intends to amend Rule 97 of the 1976 Rules by introducing a new Rule 97-A, which seeks to make proceedings of the council and its committees confidential and classified.
The proposed rule states that all acts, proceedings, deliberations and business of the PBC and any of its committees, tribunal, subcommittee or other body constituted by or under the authorityof the council should be treated as confidential and classified and should not be disclosed, communicated, circulated, published or otherwise made available to any person except in accordance with the express authority of the council or its committees.
The proposed amendment also states that no officer, employee, consultant, adviser of the PBC or any other person having access to confidential proceedings or records of the council by virtue of their office or function should disclose, reproduce, transmit, circulate or publish such information except as provided hereinbefore.
The confidentiality under the proposed rule would extend to electronic records, emails, electronic communications, audio or video recordings, digital files, photographs, copies and reproductions of any document or proceedings of the council or its committees.The eight members, in their letter, recalled that it was also stated in a Sept 4 letter to the members, circulated through WhatsApp, that the PBC Rules Committee had decided that since the meeting was not being convened shortly, the amendments should be circulated among the council members under Rule 91 of the Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976, for their views/approval.
They also drew the council’s attention to the manner in which the 1976 Rules were sought to be amended, saying they had, at the outset, strong reservations about the use of a circular resolution.
Firstly, Rule 91 of the 1976 Rules provides that ‘in case of emergency’ the PBC may pass a resolution by way of circulation. However, neither the secretary nor the Rules Committee had explained the ‘emergency’ thatrequired the overnight amendment of statutory rules, the letter emphasised.
The members said circular resolutions were not a substitute for a proper meeting of the PBC, where the merits and demerits of a proposal could be fully discussed and members given an opportunity to debate and convince each other.
‘Unfortunately, there appears to be a trend now in the PBC to pass hugely important and consequential amendments to statutory rules through circular resolution and bypass the requirement of convening a meeting even when, clearly, there is no’emergency’, the letter regretted. Besides, under Rule 91, the Rules Committee has the power, in case of an emergency, to pass a circular resolution instead of convening a meeting of the Rules Committee itself. The proposed amendment violated the freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution and also violated the right to information guaranteed under Article 19-A, the letter said.