Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
Former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed wants to know why he was snubbed for the position of senior counsel for a second time.
On Monday, an official list of 16 senior counsels were announced and 13 were awarded “silk” in a ceremony at President’s House but Mohammed was not among them.
Attorneys awarded “silk” this year include Rural Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi, Energy and Energy Industries Minister Stuart Young, Port-of-Spain South MP Keith Scotland, Chief Public Defender Hasine Shaikh, WASA chairman Ravindra Nanga, former National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) minister Anthony Smart, former Sentencing Commission chairman Gregory Delzin, Regan Asgarali, Michael Simon de La Bastide, Elaine Greene, Lee Merry, Mark Morgan, Winston Seenath, Annabelle Sooklal, Prakash Deonarine and Justin Phelps.
Mohammed claimed his name was at the top of an original list of senior counsels from the Law Association of T&T (LATT) and the Judiciary. He claimed that somewhere along the way his name was scratched off before it landed in the hands of the President.
He is now calling for answers and believes Attorney General Reginald Armour should be held accountable.
“My name was the only name removed from the list so I want to find out at what stage, my name being on that list that was in the possession of the Judiciary and the Law Association, and these are two organs of the state which the Attorney General would normally consult. All I want to find out is at what stage was my name removed and for what reason.
“When I learnt that there was a list circulating, I had further information that President’s House was told on Sunday that the list was incomplete and there were those who believed that it was my name that would be added to the list,” he said.
“Instead, after midday on Sunday, it was Keith Scotland’s name that was added. Is it that my name was removed and replaced by Keith Scotland? I don’t know. These are the matters that call for transparency and some kind of explanation.”
He added, “What has caused all of this? The stench that emanates from the upper chambers where this matter was processed is very discomforting.
“The Attorney General is the person who is responsible for answering these questions. He is the one who is accountable. He is the one who is to receive applications. He is the one who has to go through the process with respect to consultations etcetera. He is the one who will hand it to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister will then pass it on to the President.
“Ironically, he is the lawyer who had advised the then-president to fire me as chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) and he is the same one on whom today I am calling to state whether he included my name and if not, why not? And if he did include my name, by whom was it removed?”
Mohammed said he reached out to Armour on Sunday when he realised he had not received a call from the President’s House informing him of his appointment. In his words, the AG “refused to respond” to him.
Mohammed said he applied for “silk” in 2011 but was told by then-attorney general Anand Ramlogan to resign as PSC head to be conferred. He said he refused and was later fired.
This time around, he has no idea why he was refused.
Of the newly-minted senior counsels, Mohammed said no one has more experience practising law or creating laws in the country than he does.
“The reason why I applied for silk is because I thought it would enhance my image to continue to advocate for constitutional reform which is an exercise that I am actively involved in as a member of the Constitution Review Committee. That is the only reason I applied for silk,” he said.
“And more than that, there is no one who was awarded silk that has had a track record in private practice as long as I have had. I have been in practice for 50 years and 15 years out of those 50 years not only did I practice law in the courts at every level, I was engaged in making the laws of Trinidad and Tobago, in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, not only as a Member of Parliament but presiding over the making of the laws of Parliament as Speaker of the House of Representatives, number five in the protocol list in the order of precedence in the country, so why have I been denied?
“And if I was not denied and my name was scratched off somewhere as they were passing it around amongst themselves, where was it scratched off? I think there ought to be transparency. We cannot continue in this type of sloppy manner. It does not do well for our justice system and it does not do well for nation-building.”
Asked if he will ever apply for “silk” again, Mohammed said, “Never again. I will not humiliate myself, but I was not doing it for myself, I was doing it for my country.”