106 Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976

CHAPTER XII
CANONS OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETIQUETTE OF ADVOCATES
A – Conduct with regard to other Advocates:

134. It is the duty of every Advocate to uphold at all times the dignity and high
standing of his profession, as well as his own dignity and high standing as a member
thereof.

135. An advocate shall not solicit professional employment by advertisement or by

any other means. This clause shall not be construed as prohibiting the publication or use of
ordinary professional cards, name plates or conventional listing in directories, so long as the
information contained therein is limited to professional and academic qualifications, and
public offices currently held, and does not contain any matter which savours of personal
advertisement.
136. An advocate shall not employ any other person to solicit or obtain professional
employment nor remunerate another person for soliciting or obtaining professional
employment for him; nor shall he share with an unlicensed person any compensation arising
out of or incidental to professional employment, nor shall he aid or abet an unlicensed
person to practice law or to receive compensation therefor; nor shall he knowingly accept
professional employment offered to him as a result of or as incidental to the activities of an
unlicensed person.
137. An advocate shall not communicate about a subject of controversy with a party
represented by an advocate in the absence and without the consent of such advocate.
138. An advocate shall not, in the absence of the opposing counsel, communicate
with or argue before a judge or judicial officer except in open Court and upon the merits of a
contested matter pending before such judge or judicial officer; nor shall he, without
furnishing the opposing advocate with a copy thereof, address a written communication to a
judge or judicial officer concerning the merits of a contested matter pending before such
judge or judicial officer. The rule shall not apply to ex parte matters or in respect of matters
not sub-judice before the judge or judicial officer concerned.
139. A client's proffer of assistance of additional advocates should not be regarded
as evidence of want of confidence but the matter should be left .to the determination of the
client. An advocate should decline association as a colleague unless the dues of the
advocate first retained are paid.
140. Clients, not advocates, are the litigants. Whatever may be the ill-feeling
existing between clients, it should not be allowed to influence advocates in their conduct and
demeanour towards each other or toward the parties in the case. All personal clashes
between advocates should be scrupulously avoided. In the trial of a cause it is indecent to
allude to the personal history or the personal peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of advocates
Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976 107

appearing on the other side. Personal colloquies between advocates which cause delay and
promote unseemly wrangling should be carefully avoided.
141. No division of fees with any person for legal services is proper except with
another advocate based upon the principle of division of work as expressed in the
agreement between the advocates.
142. Subject to the precedence of the Attorney-General and the Advocate-General,
as established by constitutional usage and practice, it is the duty of advocate to maintain and
uphold the order of precedence in accordance with the roll of advocates maintained by the
Bar Council.
143. Junior and younger members should always be respectful to senior and elder
members. The latter are expected to be not only courteous but also helpful to their junior and
younger brethren at the Bar.

144. Where more than one advocate is engaged on any side it is the right of the
senior member to lead the case and the junior members should assist him, unless the senior
so wants.
B - Conduct with regard to Clients:
145. An Advocate shall not acquire an interest adverse to a client in the property or
interest involved in the case.
146. An Advocate shall not accept employment adverse to a client or former client,
relating to a matter in reference to which he has obtained confidential information by reason
of or in the course of his employment by such client or former client provided that an
advocate, who has not been formally engaged by a person and accepted a retainer nor
received any fees for such engagement is not precluded from accepting employment
adverse to the interest of such person.
147. An advocate shall not accept professional employment without first disclosing
his relation, if any, with the adverse party, and his interest, if any, in the subject matter of
such employment.
148. An advocate shall not represent conflicting interests.
149. An advocate shall not himself or in benami purchase any property at a probate,
foreclosure or judicial sale in an auction or proceeding in which such advocate appears for a
party, nor shall he accept the whole or part of the property, in respect of which he had been
engaged to conduct the case, in lieu of his remuneration, or as a reward or bounty.
150. An advocate shall not commingle the property of client with his own, and shall
promptly report to the client the receipt by him of any money or other property belonging to
such client.
108 Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976

151. An advocate shall not advise the commencement of prosecution or defence of

case, unless he has been consulted in reference thereto, except when his relation to a party
or to the subject matter is such as to make proper for him to do so.
152. An advocate in his professional capacity shall not advise the violation of any
law. This rule shall not apply to advice given in good faith, that a law is invalid.
153. It is the right of an advocate to undertake the defence of a person accused of
crime, regardless of his personal opinion, as distinguished from knowledge as to the guilt of
the accused; otherwise innocent persons and victims merely of suspicious circumstances
might be denied proper defence. Having undertaken such defence, an advocate is bound by
all fair and honourable means, to present every defence that the law of the land permits, to
the end that no person may be deprived of life or liberty, except by the process of law.
154. In fixing fees, advocates should avoid charges which over-estimate their advice
and services as well as those which undervalue them. A client's ability to pay cannot justify
charge in excess of the value of the service, though his property may justify a lesser charge,
or even none at all. The reasonable requests of a brother advocate, should also receive
special and kind consideration. In respect of widows and orphans of an advocate, all
advocates shall assist them free of charge.
In determining the amount of fee it is proper to consider; (i) the time and labour
required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved and the skill requisite properly to
conduct the case; (ii) whether the acceptance of employment in a particular case will
preclude the Advocate's appearance for others in cases likely to arise out of the transaction,
about which there is a reasonable expectation that otherwise he would be employed, or will
involve the loss of their business while employed in a particular case; (iii) the customary
charges of the Bar for similar service; (iv) the amount involved in the controversy and the
benefits resulting to the client from the service; (v) the contingency of the certainty of the
compensation, and (vi) the character of the employment, whether casual or for an
established and constant client. Of these considerations, none in itself is the controlling
factor. These are mere guidelines in ascertaining the real value of the service.
In fixing fees it should never be forgotten that the profession is a branch of the
administration of justice and not a mere money making trade.
155. Controversies with clients concerning compensation are to be avoided by the
advocate so far as shall be compatible with his self-respect and with his right to receive
reasonable recompense for his services. Any law suits with clients should be resorted to only
to prevent injustice, imposition or fraud.
156. Nothing operates, more certainly to create or foster popular prejudice against
advocates as a class, and to deprive the profession of that full measures of public esteem
and confidence which belongs to the proper discharge of its duties than does the false claim,
often set up by the unscrupulous in defence or questionable transactions, that it is the duty
of the advocate to do whatever may enable him to succeed in winning his client's cause.
It is improper for an advocate to assert in argument his personal belief in the client's
innocence or in the justice of his cause. His professional duty is strictly limited to making
submissions at the Bar consistently with the interest of his client.
Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976 109

An advocate owes entire devotion to the interests of the client, warm zeal in the
maintenance and defence of his rights and the exertion of his utmost learning and ability to
the end that nothing be taken or be withheld from him save by rules of law legally applied.
No fear of judicial disfavour or public unpopularity should restrain him from the full discharge
of his duty. In the judicial forum the client is entitled to the benefit of any and every remedy
and defence that is authorized by the law of the land, and he may expect his advocate to
assert every such remedy or defence. But it is steadfastly to be borne in mind that the great
trust of the advocate is to be discharged within and not without the bounds of the law. The
office of an advocate does not permit, much less does it demand of him for any client, the
violation of any law or any manner of fraud or chicanery. In doing his professional duty to his
client he must obey the voice of his own conscience and not that of his client.
157. When an advocate is a witness for his client except as to merely formal
matters, such as the attestation or custody of an instrument and the like, he should leave the
trial of the case to other advocates. Except when essential to the ends of justice, an
advocate should avoid testifying in Court on behalf of his client.
158. In incidental matters, not effecting the merits of the cause in a trial, nor working
substantial prejudice to the rights of the client, such as forcing the opposite advocate to trial
when he is under affliction or bereavement, forcing the trial on a particular day to the injury of
the opposite advocate when no harm will result from a trial at a different time, agreeing to an
extension of time for filing written statements, cross interrogatories and the like, the advocate
must be allowed to judge himself. In such matters no client has a right to demand that his
advocate shall be ungenerous or that he does any thing therein repugnant to his own sense
of honour and propriety.
C - Duty to the Court:
159. It is the duty of an advocate to maintain towards the Court a respectful attitude,
not for the sake of the temporary incumbent of the judicial office, but for the maintenance of
its supreme importance. Judges, not being wholly free to defend themselves, are peculiarly
entitled to receive the support of the Bar against unjust criticism and clamor. At the same
time whenever there is proper ground for complaint against a judicial officer, it is the right
and duty of an advocate to ventilate such grievances and seek redress thereof legally and to
protect the complainant and person affected.
160. An advocate shall not advise a person, whose testimony could establish or tend
to establish a material fact, to avoid service of process, or conceal himself or otherwise to
make his testimony unavailable.
161. An advocate shall not intentionally misquote to a judge, judicial officer or jury
the testimony of a witness, the argument of the opposing advocate or the contents of a
document; nor shall he intentionally misquote to a judge or judicial officer the language of a
book, statute or decision; nor shall he, with knowledge of its invalidity and without disclosing
such knowledge, cite as authority a decision that has been over-ruled or a statute that has
been repealed or declared unconstitutional.
162. Marked attention and unusual hospitality on the part of an advocate to a judge
or judicial officer not called for by the personal relations of the parties, subject both the judge
and the advocate to misconstructions of motive and should be avoided. An advocate should
not communicate or argue privately with the judge as to the merits of a pending cause and
he deserves rebuke and denunciation for any advice or attempt to gain from a judge special
110 Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976

consideration or favour. A self-respecting independence in the discharge of professional

duty, without denial or diminution of the courtesy and respect due to the judge's station, is
the only proper foundation for cordial, personal and official relations between the Bench and
the Bar.
163. The primary duty of an advocate engaged in public prosecution is not to
convict, but to see that justice is done. The suppression of facts or the concealing of
witnesses capable of establishing the innocence of the accused is highly reprehensible.
164. Publications in newspaper by an advocate as to pending or anticipated litigation
may interfere with a fair trial in the courts and otherwise prejudice the due administration of
justice. Generally they are to be condemned. If the extreme circumstances of a particular
case justify a statement or reference to the facts should not reach the public, it is
unprofessional to make them anonymously. An ex-parte reference to the facts should not go
beyond quotation from the records and papers on file in the Court but even in extreme cases
it is better to avoid any ex-parte statement.
165. It is the duty of advocates to endeavour to prevent political considerations from
outweighing judicial fitness in the appointment and selection of judges. They should protest
earnestly and actively against the appointment or selection of persons who are unsuitable for
the Bench and thus should strive to have elevated thereto only those willing to forego other
employments, whether of a business, political or other character, which may embarrass their
free and fair consideration of the questions before them for the decision. The aspiration of
advocates for judicial positions should be governed by an impartial estimate of their ability to
add honour to the office and not by a desire for the distinction the position may bring to
themselves.
166. It is the duty of advocates to appear in Court when a matter is called and if it is
so possible to make satisfactory alternative arrangements.
167. An advocate should in general refrain from volunteering his legal opinion or
addressing any arguments in cases in which such advocate is not engaged unless called
upon to do so in open Court by a judge or judicial officer. In advancing any such opinion he
must do so with a sense of responsibility and impartiality without any regard to the interest of
any party.
D - Conduct with regard to the public generally:
168. An advocate shall not accept employment to prosecute or defend a case out of
spite or for the purpose of harassing anyone or delaying any matter; nor shall he take or
prosecute an appeal wilfully motivated to harass any one or delay any matter.
169. An advocate should always treat adverse witnesses and parties with fairness
and due consideration, and he should never minister to the malevolence of prejudices of a
client in the trial or conduct of a cause. The client cannot be made the keeper of the
advocate's conscience in professional matters. He has no right to demand that his advocate
shall abuse the opposite party or indulge in offensive arguments. Improper speech is not
excusable on the ground that it is what the client would say if speaking in his own behalf.
170. An advocate must decline to conduct a civil cause or to make a defence when
convinced that it is intended merely to harass or to injure the opposite party or to work any
oppression or wrong. But otherwise it is his right, and having accepted a retainer, it becomes
his duty to insist upon the judgment of the Court as to the legal merits of his client's claim.
Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976 111

His appearance in Court should be deemed equivalent to an assertion on his honour that in
his opinion his client's case is one proper for judicial determination.
171. No advocate is obliged to act either as adviser or advocate for every person
who may wish to become his client. He has the right to decline professional employment.
Every advocate upon his own responsibility must decide what business he will accept as an
advocate, what cause he will bring into Court for plaintiffs, and what cases he will contest in
Court for the defendants.
172. No client, corporate or individual, however powerful, nor any cause civil or
political, however important, is entitled to receive, nor should any advocate render, any
service or advice involving disloyalty to the law whose ministers advocates are, or disrespect
the judicial office, which they are bound to uphold, or corruption of any person or persons
exercising a public office or private trust, nor indulge in deception or betrayal of the public.
When rendering any such improper service or advice the advocate invites and merits stern
and just condemnation. Correspondingly, he advances the honour of his profession and the
best interest of his client when he renders service or gives advice tending to impress upon
the client and his undertaking exact compliance with the strictest principles of moral law. He
must also observe and advise his client to observe the statute law; though until a statute
shall have been finally construed and interpreted by competent adjudication, he is free and
indeed is entitled to advise as to its validity and as to what he conscientiously believes to be
its just meaning and extent. But above all, an advocate will find his highest honour in a
deserved reputation for fidelity to private trust and to public duty as an honest man and or a
patriotic and loyal citizen.
173. An advocate shall not communicate with, nor appear before a public officer,
board, committee or body, in his professional capacity, without first disclosing that he is an
advocate representing interests that may be affected by the action of such officer, board,
committee or body.
174. An advocate should not accept employment as an advocate in any matter upon
the merits of which he has previously acted in a judicial capacity.
An advocate having once held public office or having been in the public
employment, should not, after his retirement accept employment in connection with any
matter which he has investigated or dealt with while in such office, nor employment except in
support thereof.
162
[174-A. No Advocate will use his previous designation or post such as "Retired
Justice", "Ex Judge", "Retired General", "Ex Attorney-General", "Ex Advocate-General" or
use any ex-designation, post or calling in any manner whatsoever, as prefix or suffix, either
on letter-heads, name plates, sign boards, visiting cards or in any form during the period of
his practice as an Advocate at any time.]

162. Added vide Notification published in the Gazette of Pakistan, Extra, (Part-II), December 31, 1989.
112 Pakistan Legal Practitioners & Bar Councils Rules, 1976

163
[174-B. No Advocate shall display outside his office or anywhere else his name on
the name plate or Board of the size of more than 1½' x 2'.]
164
[175. (1) An Advocate shall not join or carry on any other profession, business,
service or vocation or shall not be an active partner or a salaried official or servant in or be
subject to the terms and conditions of service of the Government, semi-Government or
autonomous body or any other organization or institution, public or private.
(2) Any violation of sub-rule (1) by an Advocate shall entail consequences as
provided in Rule 108-O.]
165
[175-A. Non observance or violation of the canons of professional conduct and etiquette
mentioned in this chapter by an advocate shall be deemed to be professional misconduct
making him liable for disciplinary action.]
166
[175-B. Non observance or defiance of decisions/instructions of the Pakistan Bar Council
by any Bar Council or Bar Association or any Member of the Bar/Advocate shall be deemed
to be a gross professional misconduct.]
167
[CHAPTER XII - A
BAR ASSOCIATIONS
175-C. (1) Only the following Bar Associations of lawyers shall function in Pakistan:--
(i) at national level there shall only be the Supreme Court Bar Association
which will function in accordance with Rules framed by the Pakistan
Bar Council.
(ii) In each Province 168[and in ICT] there may be High Court Bar
Associations at principal seat and at the places of Benches of the
respective High Courts.
(iii) In each District there may be a District Bar Association.
(iv) In each Tehsil and/or sub-division there may be a Tehsil or Sub-
divisional Bar Association.
(2) No other Bar body of lawyers shall be recognized except for the above Bar
Associations.

163. Added vide Notification published in Gazette of Pakistan Extra (Part-II), January 7, 1992.
164. The present text was substituted for the following originally framed Rule 175, vide Notification dated
15.7.1998:-
“175. An advocate should not as a general rule carry on any other profession or business or be an active
partner in or a salaried official or servant in connection with any such profession or business.”
165. Added, vide Notification dated 24.3.1979
166. Added, vide Notification dated 18.2.2009.

167. Chapter XII-A, Added, vide Notification dated 18.2.2009.

168. Inserted vide Notification of the Pakistan Bar Council dated 16-11-2015