Details of payments made by the National Assembly Secretariat to private lawyers have come to light. According to records, more than Rs 35 million was spent on legal fees from 2022 to 2026.
This information came to light after the Pakistan Information Commission ordered it on the request of journalist Sadia Mazhar. The commission, in its decision dated July 16, 2026, had directed the National Assembly Secretariat to provide the required information related to lawyers and legal cases.
According to available records, the highest amount of Rs 20.4 million was paid in the financial year 2022-23. This amount was used to pay fees to eight lawyers. The payment in the next financial year remained at Rs 2.64 million.
Legal expenses in the financial year 2024-25 reached Rs 11.1 million. In 2025-26, the secretariat paid another Rs 1.61 million.
The National Assembly Secretariat had included 10 special advocates in its panel since January 2022. They include Hafiz SA Rehman, Irfan Qadir, Ilyas Siddiqui, Arafat Ahmed Chaudhry, Imad Nasir Kundi, Lamia Niazi, Sanaullah, Ahsan Bhawan, Anwar Mughal and Farhad Ali Khan Durrani.
The fees received by some advocates are also notable in the record. Ahsan Bhawan was paid Rs 9.9 million in 2024-25. This was the highest amount paid to an advocate in a four-year period.
Irfan Qadir received a total of Rs 7.5 million. Lamia Niazi was paid Rs 6.9 million in 2022-23. Ilyas Siddiqui’s fee remained at Rs 2.85 million.
Arafat Ahmed Chaudhry received payments in all four financial years. He received a total of Rs 4.41 million. This amount includes Rs 1.35 million in 2022-23 and Rs 960,000 in 2023-24.
In the following two years, he was paid Rs 1.2 million and Rs 900,000, respectively.
These legal proceedings were mainly related to Right to Information cases. In Pakistan, citizens have the legal right to obtain information from federal institutions under the Right of Access to Information Act 2017.
In a recent order, the Pakistan Information Commission had sought details of the appointment of lawyers, payments made to them and cases filed in various courts from the National Assembly. The request sought information after January 2022.
According to the available details, the National Assembly Secretariat filed 12 cases in 2023. One case each came up in 2024 and 2025. The record does not show any number of such cases filed between 2022 and 2026.
Zafar Sultan, Director General of the National Assembly’s Media Wing, confirmed the services of private lawyers and payments of about Rs35 million. According to him, these lawyers were appointed during the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.
He said that no new lawyers were appointed during the current government’s tenure. However, the available records show a series of payments during different financial years, the details of which have now come to the public domain.
This disclosure does not currently prove any illegal action. Government agencies can hire external legal experts in specific types of cases. However, the method of appointment and justification of fees become important questions in such expenses incurred from public money.
Another aspect of the matter is the official legal system. The Attorney General of Pakistan is the central legal officer of the federation, while the federal government also has other legal officers and official legal structures.
Therefore, it is important to clarify the need for and legal benefits of hiring private lawyers from the perspective of financial transparency. Especially when the cases are related to a law that itself protects the public’s right to access information.
Various official information related to legislative and parliamentary activities is available on the National Assembly’s own website. Transparency in financial and administrative matters for a parliamentary institution is also an important part of this trust.
An important aspect of the recent development is that the record of the fees of private lawyers has come to light through the legal procedure of Right to Information itself. This shows that the RTI law can also be an effective tool for scrutinising the financial decisions of government agencies.
Now the main question is not just how much money was paid. More importantly, what was the method of selecting private lawyers, on what basis were their fees determined, and why external legal representation was considered necessary for each case?
Clear answers to these questions can increase public confidence in government spending. At the same time, timely release of full details of such matters in the future will also reduce the potential for unnecessary disputes.
