VICE CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

On behalf of the Bar Council, I extend a warm welcome to all visitors — members of the legal fraternity, litigants, and the public at large. Our Bar Council stands as a guardian of professional ethics, a promoter of legal education, and a steadfast defender of justice, rights, and freedoms.

In today’s rapidly evolving legal landscape, our mission remains rooted in the timeless values of independence, accountability, and service to society.

We are committed to empowering our members through continuous professional development, safeguarding the rule of law, and ensuring that every citizen receives fair representation and access to justice.

To our esteemed advocates, I call upon you to continue practicing with dignity, competence, and integrity. The Bar is not merely an institution — it is a symbol of our collective responsibility towards the protection of human rights, the defense of constitutional values, and the dispensation of justice without fear or favor.

This platform aims to serve as a bridge — connecting the Bar with the Bench, the profession with the public, and tradition with innovation. May it foster greater transparency, accessibility, and engagement for all stakeholders.

Together, let us work tirelessly to uphold the nobility of the legal profession and to contribute meaningfully to a just, peaceful, and progressive society.

Mr. Aqab Ahmad Hashmi
Vice Chairman

ABOUT AJK BAR COUNCIL

Azad Jammu & Kashmir Bar Council also known as AJK Bar Council is a statutory & deliberative assembly of lawyers in Azad Kashmir for safeguarding the rights,

interests, and privileges of practicing lawyers, within Azad Kashmir. It is the highest elected body of the Lawyers in Azad Kashmir.

AJK Bar Council has twenty-seven elected Members from throughout the Azad Kashmir representing each District. The Members of the AJK Bar Council are elected based on a single transferable vote by Members of the District Bars. The Bar Council also elects its Vice-Chairman every year from amongst its elected Members.

The AJK Bar council exercises general control and supervision over the District Bar Associations and regulate the entry of lawyers into the legal profession. The main functions of the Bar Council are to admit persons fulfilling the requirements of law as Advocates entitled to practice before the High Court and Supreme Court of Azad Kashmir band to maintain Roll of such Advocates and to remove advocates from the said Roll. It also enjoys powers to entertain and determine cases of professional and other misconduct against Advocates of the High Court and Supreme Court and to award punishments in such cases. Some of the functions of the AJK Bar Council, under the Act, are given below: –

to prepare and maintain a common roll of advocates.
to admit persons as advocates entitled to practice before the High court and Supreme Court and to prepare and maintain a roll of such advocates and to remove advocates from such roll.
to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates of the High Court and Supreme Court and to award punishment in such cases.
to lay down standard of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates.
to lay down the procedure to be followed by its committees.
to safeguard the rights, privileges and interest of advocates including initiation of measures for fair and inexpensive dispensation of justice by the subordinate Courts and tribunals.
to promote and suggest law reform.
to exercise general control and supervision over the District Bar Associations and to issue directions to them from time to time.
to promote legal education and to prescribe standards of such education in consultation with the Universities in Azad Kashmir.
to recognize universities whose degree in law shall be a qualification for enrolment as an advocate.
to provide free legal aid.
to hold conferences, seminars, moots lectures, jurist conferences and other meetings for promoting legal knowledge and learning in the legal profession.

As the AJK Bar Council function through its several Committees, it has constituted the following standing Committees on different subjects: