AMID a holistic series of cooperation between Pakistan and China in multidimensional sectors over the last more than seven decades, the Pak-China law corridor remains an untapped arena. Despite the extensive cooperation dynamics between both countries since the inception of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2013, there hasn’t been significant progress in formalizing legal partnerships. Neither has any Chinese lawyer been granted a solicitor license in Pakistan, nor has any Pakistani advocate been awarded a lawyer license in China.
Indeed, Pakistan and China enjoy profound common grounds with resilient and time-tested friendliness, which have never seen any lows in the ever-changing geopolitical, geo-economics and geostrategic affairs regionally and globally. However, Pakistan and China have different legal theoretical and practical frameworks. Their philosophical terminologies, jurisprudence, applications, implementation and workability are poles apart. The complexities of Pak-China Law are further aggravated when Chinese enterprisers, business people and investors have to deal with an entirely dissimilar legal landscape in Pakistan. The same is the case with Pakistani companies doing business in China.
In cases of legal disputes, litigation and court trails, most Chinese companies in Pakistan face many challenges, leading them to reel in legal conundrums. In this backdrop of inauspiciousness, the highly-acclaimed Chinese lawyer, Cheng Deyong, who founded and registered the “Zoao Law Firm” in Pakistan to resolve legal issues of Chinese companies, stands as a silver lining. As the Managing Director of Zoao Law Firm, established five years ago in Pakistan, Cheng Deyong has been grappling hard to furnish satisfactory legal solutions for Chinese public and private companies. However, the stumbling block is that Pakistani law does not allow him to plead in-person legal cases in Pakistani courts, as the Pak-China legal framework or partnership is yet to be formalized to award solicitor licenses to Chinese lawyers to practice law in Pakistan.
Both countries’ leadership should mull over the situation and come up with actionable modus operandi to introduce the Pak-China law corridor to make things happen. In terms of unveiling the Pak-China law corridor, fortunately, Zoao Law Firm has already blazed the trails, emerging as the sole law trouble-shooter for Chinese people engaged in CPEC or non-CPEC business in Pakistan. Notwithstanding the fact that Cheng Deyong is unable to appear before the courts as Pakistani law restricts him to do so, he did not get discouraged. He built a team of Pakistani lawyers and established three offices each in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi to take on all challenges head-on. Under unfavourable circumstances, Zoao Law Firm has been providing legal services to a number of Chinese companies by sorting out and resolving their more than 100 cases of various natures in the Pakistani courts.
Recently, “Zoao Law Firm” (the sole law firm authorized by the Chinese Government in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad and Chinese Consulates in Lahore & Karachi) broke new ground as a head start for germinating the Pak-China Law corridor. It has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Pakistan’s top-ranked Think Tank, the “Institute of International Relations and Media Research (IIRMR).” The MOU has marked the opening of a new window of Sino-Pak tie-up in the spectrum of law.
Under the framework of the MOU, IIRMR and Zoao Law Firm will jointly organize seminars, conferences, consultative dialogues and debates on legal issues, Pakistan jurisprudence, taxation intricacies, intellectual properties rights, enterprise legislations, registrations, certifications to sensitize Pakistan law stakeholders and Chinese companies working in Pakistan, keeping in view local law dynamics, paradigms and systems. Both partners will also collaborate to enhance people-to-people exchange in the area of the legal fraternity by exploring the untapped law landscape and guidelines.
Cheng Deyong, Managing Director of Zoao Law Firm, said that the MOU with IIRMR will break new ground in Pak-China law collaborations. He emphasized that Zoao Law Firm, as a legal aid cell for the Chinese community in Pakistan, is committed to facilitating the development of Chinese clients in the region by offering comprehensive legal services tailored to meet their specific needs. He stressed the unique challenges and opportunities that Chinese entities face when investing and operating in Pakistan and highlighted the firm’s role in providing in-depth legal support and services under the “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
Furthermore, Zoao Law Firm’s services are not limited to investment and M&A; they are also specialized in commercial and corporate affairs, market research, tax, civil and criminal litigation, arbitration, tendering and bidding affairs. The leader of IIRMR stated that legal cooperation and clarity identify more durable common grounds to understand both points of views and can provide solutions through legal innovations. Legal diplomacy offers an opportunity to focus on the legal obstacles that irritate Chinese people living in Pakistan. Specific legal steps can go a long way in further smoothing Pak-China relations. From Pakistan’s perspective, engagement with the concept of legal diplomacy is hoped to enable policymakers to better craft internal policies and legal frameworks.
Author is President of the Institute of International Relations and Media Research (IIRMR)
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