The Center for Law and Security (CLAS) held a seminar on “Lawfare and Pakistan” to analyse the role of law-fare in the modern world, evaluate Pakistan’s capacity to conduct and counter lawfare operations, and how to develop a set of operational objectives that Pakistan’s lawfare doctrine should look to attain.

The chief guests of the event included Farogh Naseem, Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Dr Moeed Yousuf, National Security Advisor, The keynote speakers included Mr. Sardar Masood Khan (President Azad Jammu and Kashmir), General (Retd.) Zubair Mahmood Hayat HI (M) (Former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee), Mr. Ahmer Bilal Soofi (President of Research Society of International Law), Anwar Mansoor (Former Attorney General of Pakistan), Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, (Chairman Senate Defence Committee), Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan (Former Cheif Justice of Republic of the Gambia and International Judge at the Hague), Senator Syed Ali Zafar (Special Assistant to the Prime Minister), Ambassador (r) Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry (Director General, Institute of Strategic Studies), and Imtiaz Gul (Executive Director, Centre for Research and Security Studies).

Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Dr Farogh Nasim who was the Chief Guest of the final Session emphasized on the pertinence of capacity building within the system. He said that no one should be able to say that there are shortcomings in our laws to reconcile with international laws. He said we believe in defensive lawfare but we should also identify the faultiness that our adversaries exploit in such cases. He called on all political parties to rise above politics to deal with lawfare against Pakistan.

Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, said that warfare of narrative and opinion is being promoted worldwide. He emphasised that we must focus on capacity building to counter these threats and prefer capability over seniority. He said Pakistan is an important country for the world and cannot be ignored. International legal frameworks are used against Pakistan, and there is a need to meet these new challenges at a fast pace through modern technology.

Dr. Moeed Yusuf, National Security Advisor, talked about how lawfare posed a critical question and stressed the need for different institutions, political, diplomatic, legal and civil, to come together to develop a lawfare doctrine for Pakistan. SAPM Senator Syed Ali Zafar, who was also a keynote speaker of the seminar, said that lawfare should be used as a defence and attack mechanism with full understanding to prevent us from being trapped in an unknown establishment of a particular law. He said that lawmaking should be done with a strategic direction. He said that Senate’s Law and Justice Committee would ensure that approved laws will be in our national interests.

The seminar was conducted in three sessions. Welcome note was given by Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq Chairman Advisory Board, CLAS. The first session, titled Lawfare: A New Frontier, was moderated by eminent journalist Fahd Husain. President Sardar Masood Khan who delivered the inaugural keynote said that the term lawfare has been frequently used in Pakistan, but now this must not be used merely in speeches and as a reference ‘Instead, our experts on international law should sit together and prepare a strong case against India to ensure the protection of the national and strategic interests of Pakistan and Kashmir’. General Zubair Mahmood Hayat said that Lawfare should not be seen as a challenge, we have the human resource capacity to convert it into an opportunity’ while Mr. Ahmer Bilal Soofi further stressed on lawfare opportunities for Pakistan and gave an example of how India has conducted lawfare in Kashmir.

The second session was on Lawfare in the Context of Pakistan’ which was moderated by Jamal Aziz, Director RSIL who also highlighted cases studies of law fare against Pakistan. During the keynotes of this session, Mr. Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry mentioned that it is the duty of our educational institutions to develop new generation of experts and manpower that specializes in the field of Lawfare to protect Pakistan’s interests in contemporary times. Mr. Imtiaz Gul discussed how Pakistan’s present efforts of mitigating the spread of disinformation, misinformation and fake news is insufficient and that we need to build a stronger case at the international forums. Former Attonrey General, Mr. Anwar Mansoor Khan expressed that Pakistan should be proactive and act rather than reactive when countering lawfare.

The final session of the conference ‘Way Forward for Pakistan’ was moderated by Rehman Azhar, Executive Director CLAS. The session began with a keynote from Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who talked about how Pakistan needs to learn about employing lawfare operations similar to the foreign states & institutional bodies against its adversaries to gain strategic advantage to and forward their interests. He talked about the geo-political situation and said that separation of East Pakistan was first example of law fare against Pakistan nd propaganda is used to conduct law fare operations. Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan highlighted how `lawfare curtails sovereignty” and that “the use of law as a weapon in war is the way forward’.  He said Pakistan should take Kashmir’s case to International Court of Justice.

Chief Guests and Speakers were presented shields at the end of seminar.