Lawyers can serve people in distress, agony, pain and who are aggrieved and in need of justice, and that is why the legal profession is the noblest of professions, said Justice Rana Bhagwandas, a Supreme Court judge, in his address at the orientation-cum-graduation ceremony of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), Karachi campus Saturday.

Justice Bhagwandas was the chief guest at the occasion that marked the graduation of SZABIST’s third batch of the University of London External Programme’s LLB degree and the welcome of the first batch of the BSc programme. The ceremony was attended by students and their parents, and faculty and staff of SZABIST.

Justice Bhagwandas stressed the need to revamp our legal education system so that it was capable of producing lawyers who were socially sensitive and justice-oriented professionals. “Legal education must not just be confined to teaching law students about the statutes of law; it is about making the students aware of the situation, it is about imparting professional skills so that these students can become honourable judges and lawyers.”

He said that, for the development of society, legal education is necessary and extremely useful and must receive due attention. “It is, indeed, regrettable that students who excel in pre-university exams prefer the fields of business administration, medicine, computer science and engineering, and look at the law discipline as a last resort. We must improve our legal education system to change this notion and attract the best of the best of our students. Many law graduates have opted for positions as legal advisors and business executives and it is not true that a law degree confines you.”

Senator Dr Javed Leghari, SZABIST vice president and project director, spoke about the relationship between the University of London and SZABIST since they started offering tuition for the external programme in 2001. “This is the beginning of the sixth academic year here. We have completed three batches of LLB and six of our students are already barristers practicing in Karachi. This year, our passing rate for the University of London’s examinations was 85 percent, which has surpassed the university’s own passing rate (67 percent).” He said that SZABIST was formed in 1995 and is a chartered institution offering degrees in management sciences, computer sciences, social sciences, media sciences, economics and law. The ceremony was also addressed by Justice Hazar Khan Khoso, former Supreme Court chief justice, and Mashhood Rizvi.- [By Zainab Imam via DailyTimes]

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