December 2014
The first mission of the Highly Enthusiastic and Educative Rights Association (HEERA) is to ensure the accessibility in courts because all members of HEERA are lawyers and it is easy to put efforts for the accessibility of courts. In 2010 Lahore high court became accessible with the efforts of HEERA and now in 2014 the new judicial complex has been inaugurated by Chief Justice Lahore High Court. The complex has the accessible ramp for persons with disabilities.
For this purpose Chairman of Heera, Mr. Tahir Pervaiz, has filed a Writ petition to Session Judge Lahore requesting to make new judicial complex model town accessible. The writ petition was accepted by the honorable Session judge. Now the building of Model Town Courts is accessible thanks to the Chairman of HEERA.
As a cochairman of Legal Ethics Education Committee (LEEC) of Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), it's my first workshop to organize and in this work shop different speakers gave a comprehensive lecture on tax laws. At the end of the workshop the chairman said that the process of workshops would be continued and the cochairman, Omer Pervaiz Malik, thanked the audience and said that this was the start of the series of workshop that was to be continued. He also said that LEEC would conduct more and more national and international seminars where the lawyers could learn and participate equally.
In Milestone located in KPK, persons with disabilities form different sectors get together and implement training programs on Independent Living (IL), employment etc. for persons with various disabilities. Mr. Omer Pervaiz was privileged to give a lecture on advocacy for persons with disabilities. He spoke about the topic comprehensively by telling its importance in the current situation of Pakistan and also about the methodology use in different countries. Through introducing practical exercises, he successfully carried out the module and shared his view on how persons with disabilities could empower each other. The participants, who came from different areas of KPK, were active, inspired and showed their will and determination to introduce the concept of advocacy to, and thereby empower, their fellow persons with disabilities in their own native area.
Meanwhile the 2nd workshop of tax laws were held in Karachi Shohuda Hall of Lahore High Court, where the guest speakers gave lectures on the taxation laws, specially covering the e-filling of income tax return. One of the guest speakers showed a live demonstration of E-filling on the internet. Mr. Omer Pervaiz on his thanking speech appreciated the new method used by the guest speaker and told about the progress of LEEC of LHCBA and its upcoming events.
On their visit to Lahore, JICA Pakistan's Headperson, Naoto Ikeda, and Muzamil Islam visited Punjab Judicial Academy along with the staff of HEERA, where they met with Mr. Amir Muneer, a senior instructor and Director General of Academy. First of all, staff gave us the presentation on academy's work and told that in Judicial Academy judges used to come and attended different training courses. Then they took us for the visit of academy. After our visit Director General of Academy talked about the future plans of Academy. Mr. Ikeda talked about the activities of JICA in Pakistan especially the ongoing project in KPK. President of HEERA, Mr. Omer Pervaiz, put a request to Director General for the training of Judges regarding the disability laws in Pakistan. Director General agreed upon idea and gave the permission to carry out awareness raising training targeting judges in collaboration with HEERA.
Ms. Naoto Ikeda then visited Lahore High Court, where he first met with Secretary General of LHCBA and shared his purpose of visit along with the members and president of HEERA, Mr. Omer Pervaiz Malik. Secretary General of LHCBA presented a honorarium to Mr. Naoto Ikeda on behalf of HEERA organization. Then along with all members he checked the accessibility of Lahore High Court and also visited the Court of Chief Justice Lahore High Court. At the end a group photo was taken with the cabinet members of the bar and HEERA's members.
JICA's representative then visited the site of HEERA’s planned research and development (R&D) center. Heera will construct and start the R&D center for CRPD where data from all over the world will be collected and then utilized to raise awareness among the stakeholders, government to amend the laws or make new legislation for persons with disabilities in Pakistan. On the site visit the chairman of HEERA briefed Mr. Ikeda on the working of center to Mr. Ikeda.
The 3rd and last workshop of tax laws was held on 30th November 2014, arranged by LEEC of LHCBA. Guest speakers were Mr. Mansha Sukhera and Ch. Qamar uz Zaman. Both speakers gave a lecture in a good manner and lawyers who were attending the workshop asked some questions. At the end of speech Cochairman of LEEC, Mr. Omer Pervaiz, declared the end of the tax laws session and also some new plans that were in the pipeline.
Reported by Omer Pervaiz
15th program trainee
Lahore, Pakistan