National Legal Aid Day was celebrated with the theme ‘Smart Legal Aid, Smart Country, Bangabandhu’s Bangladesh’ in Pabna on Sunday.

To celebrate the day, a colourful rally took out from the district judge court premises and circled the main road of the town.

At the end of the rally, the Legal Aid Fair was inaugurated in the premises of the District Judge Court. Then Senior District and Sessions Judge and District Legal Aid Committee chairman Mohammad Waliul Islam presided over the discussion.

Senior District Judge Ahsan Tarek, District Judge Mizanur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Asaduzzaman, superintendent of police Akbar Ali Munsi, civil surgeon Dr. Shahidullah Dewan, chief judicial magistrate Kamal Hossain, district bar association president Dewan Majnul Haque, general secretary Abdul Ahad Babu, government counsel Hossain Shahid Suhrawardy and public prosecutor Abdus Samad Khan Ratan.

Senior District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Waliul Islam said, “To ensure equal legal protection of poor, helpless and underprivileged people, the sincere cooperation of local public representatives, executive and police administration, civil society individuals, private organisations and above all court judges and lawyers is absolutely necessary.

District Legal Aid officer senior assistant judge Begum Parul Akhtar presented concept paper about free legal aid programme at government expense on the occasion. It was informed in the meeting that the cost of handling the cases of 330 women, 247 men and 3 children in one year from 2023 to 2024 through the Pabna district legal aid committee has been borne by the government.

Also, out of 545 disputes, 114 disputes have been settled through alternative dispute resolution system. district Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Abu Obaida, other judges, employees, panel lawyers of district legal aid committee, other lawyers of district bar association and litigants were present in the meeting.

Joint District and Sessions Judge Md Tajul Islam, Judicial Magistrate Begum Sumaiya Sarkar conducted the meeting.

Finally, Abu Bakar Siddique and Swapna Rani Sarkar were awarded as the best panel lawyers in 2023.