ISLAMABAD: Despite availability of over a dozen senior law officers in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) engaged a private law firm for defending the appointment of its national coordinator Khawaja Amir.

The private law firm, Nishtar and Zafar, which Mr Amir engaged for his defence in identical petitions filed with the IHC against his appointment belongs to Secretary Law Barrister Zafarullah Khan.

It may be mentioned that Nacta is already accused of ‘facilitating’ certain people. Contrary to the Nacta Act 2010, which provides for a national coordinator in grade 22, the incumbent is a grade 20 officer. Similarly, the deputy national coordinator should be a grade 20 officer but Akbar Nasir Khan, a grade 18 officer from the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), is occupying the post.

Some of Nacta’s directors include Fazal-i-Majid, a system analyst from the library department; Ubaidullah Farooq, who landed at Nacta after his ministry was devolved under the 18th Amendment; and Rabia Yasmin, an employee of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

Identical petitions have been filed against hiring of Khawaja Amir as national coordinator

“In routine, law officers of the federal government appear in such matters from the respondents side and if an officeholder wants to engage a private lawyer he has to bear the cost of litigation from his own resources and should not shift the burden to the national exchequer,” said Akhtar Awan, a former deputy attorney general.

Currently, there are one additional attorney general in grade 21, four deputy attorney general and eight standing counsel in grade 20 working in the IHC.

In 2008, there was a single deputy attorney general for eight courts of the IHC. A large number of law officers were hired in the IHC by the ministry of law after the PML-N came to power and appointed Barrister Khan as the law secretary.

At present, there are more than three law officers for each courtroom. According to the former deputy attorney general, the law officers are sufficient to handle the case of Nacta chief’s appointment and in the presence of the official lawyers private counsel cannot be engaged on the expense of the government.

Initially, standing counsel Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon of the federal government represented Mr Amir but later Nacta appointed advocate Aziz Nishtar, a partner of ‘Nishtar & Zafar’ law firm.

Nacta paid Rs0.6 million to advocate Nishtar for his services. The Nacta director finance, Tahir Mustafa Khosa, told Dawn that the authority could engage a lawyer. He said the authority had engaged advocate Nishtar for handling different service-related matters, including the appointment of Mr Amir as the Nacta national coordinator.

Legal experts said the authority like Nacta could appoint a lawyer to handle its routine litigation. They were of the view that the appointment of an official cannot be defended by engaging a private counsel on the state expense. For the routine litigation, the authority has to seek the approval of the law ministry.

When contacted, Secretary Law Barrister Zafarullah Khan said he did not recommend advocate Nishtar for handling the Nacta cases.

He said advocate Nishtar was an independent lawyer and after joining the law ministry last year he had not gotten even a single penny from the law firm, Nishtar & Zafar.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2014