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March 9, 2010, 10:38 am | 
Internews Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Law Minister Babar Awan has nominated himself for an international assignment worth millions of dollars. A former Supreme Court judge and a former attorney general, who had backed the proclamation of emergency of November 3, 2007, have also been nominated for the assignment, according to news reports here.
The law ministry had put the minister’s name at the top of the four-member list of legal experts recommended to the International Arbitration Forum for future assignments at the International Arbitration Court (IAC), dawn newspaper revealed Monday. The lawyers recommended by various countries are put on a panel from which parties to a dispute choose experts from.
“Lawyers who are finally selected from the panel by the disputing international parties get paid up to millions of dollars in fee,” said Malik Saeed, a former judge of Lahore High Court, who has been nominated by Pakistan in an international arbitration involving France and Pakistan over the nuclear reprocessing plant dispute.
When contacted, Awan first denied any knowledge of such a panel, saying he had not been consulted on the matter. He sought some time to find out more on the issue. He later called and said that “somebody” in his ministry had put his name on the list without his consent. “I have ordered an inquiry into the incident and have also ordered for withdrawal of my name,” said the minister.
He added that he knew nothing of the other nominees. The sources said the names had already been sent to the Foreign Office.
Saeed, who had resigned an important position during the martial law of Gen Ziaul Haq, said that it was the Law Ministry that sent the names for the panel and the law minister usually knew of the lawyers nominated. “If I were the minister, I would never nominate myself for the panel as it is not elegant and also because he (the minister) is facing allegations of taking bribe (as a lawyer) worth millions of rupee in a famous bank fraud case,” he said.
He was referring to the Bank of Punjab case, because of which a regulatory body of lawyers is conducting disciplinary proceedings against Awan, former attorney general Malik Muhammad Qayyum and others for taking bribe in return for promise of a favourable verdict in the Supreme Court.
One of the three other lawyers nominated is Makhdoom Ali — former attorney general for Pakistan who allegedly drafted military ruler Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf’s proclamation of emergency that led to the unprecedented sacking of superior court judges, including incumbent Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
The third nominee is Justice Faqir Khokhar, who had to resign from the Supreme Court last year after being charged of misconduct and contempt of court by a bench headed by Chaudhry.
The fourth nominee is a former chief justice of Pakistan, Ajmal Mian, who was at the centre of a controversy some 14 years ago over alleged cover-up of reported child abuse at his residence.
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