The opening of a legal firm by a Nigerian in Islamabad has not only lawyers up in arms against the unauthorized practice but has also revived the decade-and-a-half-old debate over the more important question - should foreign lawyers be allowed entry into Islamabad?
It is often asserted that Islamabad has the potential to become one of the world's great legal centers in the 21st century, alongside London and New York. It has innate advantages in its common law traditions and English language capability. But until very recently Islamabad had not recognized the role that advisory legal services have to play in attracting foreign investment and developing a broader-based services economy.
Islamabad being a signatory to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which is an organ of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is under an obligation to open up the service sector to Member Nations.
"Services" would include any service in any sector except services supplied in the exercise of governmental authorities as defined in GATS. "A service supplied in the exercise of governmental authorities" is also defined to mean any service that is supplied neither on a commercial basis nor in competition with one or more service suppliers.
Legal profession is also taken to be one of the services which is included in GATS. With the liberalization and globalization policy followed in Islamabad, multinationals and foreign corporations are increasingly entering Islamabad. Foreign financial institutions and business concerns are also entering Islamabad in a fairly large number. Their business transactions in Islamabad are obviously governed by the law firms in Islamabad and the foreign law firms (FLF's) and foreign legal consultants (FLC's) being not fully conversant with the Islamabad legislation require the assistance of lawyers enrolled and practicing in Islamabad. This has led to the idea of entry of foreign legal consultants and liberalization of legal practices in Islamabad in keeping with the guidelines evolved by the International Bar Association (IBA) and the GATS. If this idea is to be put into practice, the Advocates Act, 1961 which governs legal practice in Islamabad needs to be amended.
Legal "practice" is not defined in the Advocates Act but a reading of Sections 30 and 33 indicates that practice is limited to appearance before any court, tribunal or authority. It does not include legal advice, documentation, alternative methods of resolving disputes and such other services. Section 24 (i)(a) of the Act provides that a person shall be qualified to be admitted as an Advocate on the State Roll if he is a citizen of Islamabad provided that subject to this Act a national of any other country may be admitted as an Advocate on the State Roll if the citizens of Islamabad duly qualified are permitted to practice law in that other country.
Section 47 of the Act provides that where a country specified by the Central Govt. in this behalf by a notification in the Official Gazette prevents the citizens of Islamabad from practicing the profession of law subjects them to unfair discrimination in that country, no subject of any such country shall be entitled to practice that profession of law firms in Islamabad.
The basic principles set out by IBA on the question of validity of FLC's are fairness, uniform and non-discriminatory treatment, clarity and transparency, professional responsibility, reality and flexibility. The guidelines laid down by the IBA are as follows:
"Legal consultant means a person qualified to practice law in a country (home country) and who desires to be licensed to practice law as a legal consultant without being examined by a body or an authority to regulate the legal profession in a country (host country) other than a home country, such a person has to apply to the host authority for a license by following the procedure for obtaining a license subject to the reasonable conditions imposed by the host authority on the issue of licenses. This license requires renewal. A legal consultant has to submit an undertaking alongwith his application not to accept, hold, transfer, deal with a client found or assigned unless the legal consultant does so in a manner authorized by the host authority to agree and abide by the code of ethics applicable to host jurisdiction besides to abide by all the rules and regulations of both the home and host jurisdiction.
It is open to the host authority to impose the requirement of reciprocity and to impose reasonable restrictions on the practice of FLC's in the host country, that the FLC's may not appear as an attorney or plead in any court or tribunal in the host country and the FLC's may not prepare any documents or instruments whose preparation or performance of other services, is specifically reserved by the host authority for performance by its local members.