Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry urged the law colleges’ principals to play their role in strengthening the legal education system in the province to achieve standards set in the national judicial policy on Thursday.
Addressing a gathering of over 35 law college principals at the LHC library auditorium, the chief justice said the existing LLB programme for law students had serious loopholes which needed immediate review to meet the future needs of the legal and judicial system.
About legal ethics, the CJ said that although the subject is included in the syllabus for LLB, yet the same is not being given importance. He observed that it was common for lawyers to behave rashly when relief was not given to them.
“If we review history, all the great advocates ensured the decorum of courts at all costs,” he said.
The CJ said that legal colleges should inculcate this ‘missing sense’ in their graduates and for that they can refer to the past when the juniors considered it an honour to leave chair for senior members of the bar standing besides in search of a sitting place.
CJ Chaudhry also sought proposals to overhaul the standards of legal education in the country, which he said, he would submit before the chief justice of Pakistan.
The CJ informed that in the National Judicial Conference (NJC) 2011, which was held in Islamabad, it was noticed that the standards of legal education were decaying. He told that chief justice Pakistan, being head of judiciary in the country and chairman of the National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPNC), gave him the task to examine the existing curriculum of LLB programme in light of the recommendations formulated on the conclusion of NJC and submit suggestions in the next meeting of the NJPNC. For this purpose, he said, discussion with the people heading the institutions imparting legal education was of paramount importance and their suggestions will be included in the discussion in the next NJPNC.
Nafeer A Malik, Chairman Inter Faculty Board of Legal Education LHC Bar Association and principals of different colleges also spoke on the occasion and gave proposals for improving the legal education standards.
