**Senate Committee Approves Key Amendments to Strengthen Bar Councils\u2019 Credibility and Transparency**<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD\u2014The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice has unanimously passed extensive amendments to *The Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2025*, a legislative move designed to enhance the transparency, credibility, and operational timelines of bar councils throughout Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The committee, chaired by Senator Farooq Hamid Naek, convened at the Old PIPS Hall in Islamabad, with attendance from Senators Syed Ali Zafar, Ahad Khan Cheema, Abdul Qadir, Khalil Tahir, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazir Tarar, and chairmen of various bar councils, alongside key legal stakeholders.<\/p>\n
During a comprehensive clause-by-clause review, the committee approved the bill with significant amendments aimed at institutionalizing predictability and uniformity in the electoral process. Notably, elections for all provincial and federal bar councils will now be mandatorily held on the first Saturday of November, and in no case later than the second Saturday of November.<\/p>\n
The amendments also raise the eligibility bar for candidates aspiring to contest Bar Council elections. It was agreed, after thorough debate, that candidates must have been enrolled as an advocate of the High Court for at least ten years and must have independently handled a minimum of thirty cases. These measures are intended to ensure that only experienced and capable professionals are elected to crucial bar council positions.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the new legislation stipulates that any individual convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude or sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more (unless released at least five years prior) will be disqualified from seeking membership. This provision aims to maintain the ethical and professional standards of bar council leadership.<\/p>\n
A further key development is the allocation of bar council seats for the newly merged districts in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ensuring rightful representation of these areas in accordance with Sub-Section (2)(b) of Section 5 of the Act.<\/p>\n
The Senate committee emphasized the pivotal role played by bar councils in upholding constitutional supremacy, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary. The new amendments are intended to introduce robust controls to guarantee that only those with requisite expertise and integrity serve in these important bodies.<\/p>\n
Other constitutional amendment bills scheduled for deliberation were deferred to a later session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Senate Committee Approves Key Amendments to Strengthen Bar Councils\u2019 Credibility and Transparency** ISLAMABAD\u2014The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice has unanimously passed extensive amendments to *The Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2025*, a legislative move designed to enhance the transparency, credibility, and operational timelines of bar councils throughout Pakistan. The committee, chaired …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5633,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions\/5633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}