The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed a provincial law officer to submit a report with regard to approval of the Sindh chief minister for providing relief funds to the lawyers affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. The direction came on a petition of the Sindh Bar Council (SBC) and other lawyers seeking a direction to the federal and provincial governments to provide annual grant in aid and at least Rs70 million to the bar council relief funds to provide financial assistance to the lawyers affected due to the pandemic. An additional advocate general Sindh informed the high court that the finance department had forwarded a summary to the law department that requested the finance department that funds be placed at disposal of the SBC which disposes of the same through its own mechanism. The law officer submitted that the finance department would earmark funds and put the same to the Chief Minister for his approval and said that the decision would be made within two weeks. A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Omar Sial directed the law officer to submit a report with regard to the approval of funds as well as file a report on the SBC and bar associations’ request for regular funds, and adjourned the hearing till July 9. The SBC had filed the petition with the SHC, submitting that the bar council had 35,000 registered advocates entitled to practise law in the province and many of those lawyers were facing financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown as all court work had been suspended except for urgent nature cases and bail matters. Their counsel Salahuddin Ahmed said that as many as 7,000 applications had been received by the council, which was 20 per cent of its members in the province, for financial support and at least Rs70 million was required to distribute amongst the lawyers at the rate of Rs10,000 per lawyer.
