Instruct the chambers.

How the chambers are instructed

• Appearance

  Who appears in court

  Syed Aun Mohammed Bokhari appears personally in every matter, at every hearing. The brief is not passed to another counsel.

• Appeal

  If the matter goes up

  Since the Rules of the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan permit an Advocate of the High Courts to be heard in a particular case on the special leave of that Court, therefore a matter which goes up to the Apex Court is carried there by the same counsel who conducted it below, on leave granted for that case. The client is not handed to a stranger at the appeal stage.

• Scope

  A written engagement letter, before any work begins

  No instruction is accepted on a conversation alone. The letter is issued first and the client signs it before the file is opened.

• Conflicts

  Prosecution and defence

  The chambers accept both prosecution and defence briefs, and the principal holds a standing appointment as Special Public Prosecutor under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010; since that is so, therefore a conflicts check is completed before any paper is taken and before any fee is discussed, and an instruction which cannot be accepted is declined at once and in writing.

• Clients

  Who the chambers act for

  Persons under inquiry, investigation or trial; importers, exporters and clearing agents; listed companies; and the Federal Government, the provincial governments and the regulatory bodies.

What the engagement letter states

The parties and the matter; the scope of work, stage by stage; the forums in which counsel will appear; the counsel who will appear; the basis of the fee and what it excludes; disbursements; the conflicts position; and the terms on which either side may bring the engagement to an end.

Fees

• Basis

  A fixed fee, stage by stage

  The chambers do not bill against recorded time. Each stage carries its own fee: the opinion, the reply to the show cause notice, the proceedings before the adjudicating officer, the trial, the appeal, the reference and the writ petition. The fee for a stage is agreed in writing before that stage begins, hence no client is billed for work he has not first approved.

• Conference

  The first conference

  Arranged case by case, and the basis on which it is charged is settled when it is arranged, before counsel reads the papers.

• Expenses

  Disbursements

  Court fees, process fees, travel where a matter is heard outside Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and out-of-pocket expenses are billed at cost, in addition to the fee, and are itemised.

• Figures

  Why no rates appear on this page

  Chapter XII of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Rules, 1976 forbids an advocate to advertise or to solicit work, therefore no schedule of rates is published here. The basis of charging is stated above in full, and the figure for a given matter issues in writing on enquiry.