Lawyers Welfare Act: Ministry questions maintainability of pleas

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Law and Justice has raised objection as to the maintainability of writ petition filed by Advocate Waheed Shahzad Butt before the Lahore High Court, seeking enforcement of the Lawyers Welfare and Protection Act, 2023. The Law Ministry also submitted before LHC that owing to the ongoing “Islamabad Peace Talks”, Government Offices and Ministries have remained closed, which has temporarily disrupted inter-ministerial coordination and has impeded the timely submission of comprehensive responses from the concerned Divisions. This circumstance has been placed on record as a contextual explanation for any perceived delay in the filing of a complete joint report by all concerned Ministries. Ministry of Law and Justice observed that the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, and the Ministry of Interior are indispensable parties to the proceedings, as the subject matter of the petition substantially falls within the legislative and administrative domains of those Ministries. The petition is therefore stated to be liable to dismissal on this preliminary ground alone. Waheed Shahzad Butt through International Constitutional lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique has preferred this writ petition before the LHC. The WP names twenty respondents, including the Ministry of Law and Justice, the FBR, NAB, FIA, SBP, SECP, NEPRA, OGRA, the Punjab Police, Anti-Corruption Establishment, and major Bar Councils. It invokes Articles 4, 9, 10-A, 14, and 25 of the Constitution and prays for writs of mandamus compelling the respondents to designate Special Courts nationwide, notify implementing rules and constitute a Federal-Provincial Imple-mentation Monitoring Committee under Court supervision. Petitioner Waheed Butt has condemned the continued failure of authorities to operationalise provision of the Lawyers Welfare and Protection Act 2023, warning that the legislation has been reduced to a dead letter since its enactment. Butt noted that the Act was enacted in consonance with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (1990), with the express purpose of shielding advocates from violence, intimidation, and professional harassment. The law carries several significant obligations, including the establishment of Special Courts for the trial of offences committed against advocates, provision of healthcare facilities, non-discriminatory access to financial services, mandatory engagement of legal advisors by corporations, and a dedicated Shuhada Package for the families of lawyers martyred in the line of duty. “Not a single provision of this Act has been operationalised to date, ” Butt stated, describing the situation as a grave institutional failure and a breach of the State’s commitment to the legal community. He called upon the relevant authorities to take immediate steps toward implementation, emphasizing that the protection of lawyers is inseparable from the protection of the justice system itself. The legal fraternity, he cautioned, will not remain silent in the face of continued inaction: Waheed added. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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