Interview with: Yousaf Amanat, Managing Partner

Yousaf Amanat & Associates deals in both contentious and non contntious matters for Pakistan. Yousaf Amanat is one of the very few niche lawyers in Pakistan who advise international clients on data protection/technology related issues. The Firm has a very strong litigation and arbitration department. Partners of the Firm are lawyers of the High Courts and Suepreme Court of Pakistan. Mr. Amanat in the past has also acted as the In house Counsel for the Tethyan Copper Company for the Reko Diq Mining Project in Baluchistan.  

 

Any good news coming from Pakistan business wise?

Mining. That’s presently the big news business wise. The USD 11 Billion dispute between Pakistan and Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada has finally been settled in the best way possible. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ratified an Agreement between the Government of Pakistan and Barrick for the restart of the Project. Barrick is a 50% shareholder in the Project with the rest of the shareholding divided between Pakistan’s stated owned entities and the province of Baluchistan.

Having worked in the mining sector both with Barrick Gold and Antofagasta we can tell you that this is going to be massive for Pakistan!!!! It will open one of the most lucrative mining industries of the world. The Tethyan Belt is one of the richest deposits in terms of Gold and Copper. We see various mining companies and other contractors working in Pakistan in the new future.

 

In your opinion what problems are faced by your clients when dealing with Pakistan?

In our experience the major problems faced by clients is the fear of the unknown when dealing with a litigation or regulators in Pakistan. In instances such as these the client is looking for a trusted partner who is well versed in the law as well as the practical side of dealing with courts and regulators. This is what we specialize in and this what clients rely on us for. Clients when faced with a litigation or faced with regulators such as the SECP, Competition Commission or LEAs such as the FIA are not looking for legal opinions, what they are looking for are solutions. We specialize in providing solutions. From working on the over all strategy to our presence in courts and tribunal are success rate is 100%.

 

Data Protection and Privacy are compelling issues internationally. Do you receive queries on these subjects?

Given the changing scenario in the international political arena and the conservative control governments have started exerting on social media and freedom of speech, areas such as Data Protecton and Privacy have gained significant importance. Data Protection is our specialty. PECA 2016 and the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2021 are laws that are a cause of concern for many international clients. The Government and security agencies of Pakistan are heavily invested in the use and promulgation of both laws. This year alone we advised Quanticast, Warner Brothers, Tik Tok, Ant Group on both laws. I’m a member of various privacy organizations and regularly contribute articles and news on privacy and data protection to these organizations.

 

You are recognized for your Employment Law practice but what are the other practices you receive queries for and why would clients prefer you when there are other Firms ranked for the same?

Apart from Employment Law the other queries we receive are for Data Protection, Tax, Company Law, Civil Litigation, Criminal complaints, Competition Law, Arbitration and helping charitable organizations.

We cant rightly comment on why we receive queries for the above practices when there are other Firms ranked for the same BUT we like to think that it is because clients find our rates reasonable and of course our reputation which is fast spreading by word of mouth.

 

Artificial Intelligence. Your encounters with the same in your practice?

That is a unique question indeed. We had the opportunity to work on a complex assignment with Delivery Hero and Food Panda which brought forth the unregulated phenomenon of Algorithm’s actually controlling and employing workers. The Gig economy like other parts of the world is also booming in Pakistan. We advised Delivery Hero and Food Panda on the risks and liabilities which could materialize under the local employment laws when an algorithm actually controls how Gig workers perform their services.

We also recently advised EASOP a Belgium based tax software on stock options offered by US companies to employees based in Pakistan.

 

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Yousaf Amanat & Associates from your competitors?

One formula for our success lies in our holistic and integrated approach to the client’s needs. We do not see clients as an opportunity for different practice groups to divvy up their attention, with their respective output pulled together in a superficial patchwork of disparate pieces. Instead, our design thinking takes root at the underlying architecture and engineering of our solutions. Our work for a client is not dictated by how we happen to organize ourselves into practice groups. On the contrary, we organize ourselves according to the client’s practical and business circumstances, which may, for example, require the tactical structuring of a corporate transaction to achieve a commercial objective driven by technology or intellectual property considerations. For that, the client gets an integrated end-to-end solution, not different pieces from different corners of the firm.

In this regard, we consider ourselves a business-focused law practice – this means we support businesses. In terms of subject matter specialization, we do happen to have a strong preponderance to areas that involve TMT and IP, areas which have a natural relationship with one another. But because we see the clients’ business as the touchstone of the required focus, we do happen to move seamlessly from these areas into corporate law, mergers and acquisition, fintech, employment, or investments. There are no artificial practice-area-centric barriers to the way we think in how we support our clients.

Such an approach allows us to optimize for the client, the second reason we do better. Our clients know that we don’t try to fit their problems into pre-packed boxes of solutions, in the hope that one of them will work. We understand, we optimise and we lead.

Which brings us to the third reason. When we say that we are lawyers who lead, it means taking responsibility for a client’s needs and leading the way in matters of law, which may sometimes even include formulating the required services, as opposed to merely providing services described to or requested of us.

 

This has been most informative for our readers. Please also tell us do you cover all of Pakistan?

Well we wanted the interview to be of help to your readers. To answer your question, we have an office in Islamabad and Karachi but through our network of trusted associates we have provided representation to clients in KPK, Baluchistan and Punjab. So essentially, we do cover all of Pakistan.

 

Please provide an example of how you have practically assisted a client recently.

Practical being the operative word in replying to this question. Recently Spice Route Legal referred a large German software house to our Firm. The matter involved a particularly trying situation for the client where a contractor of the client based in Pakistan was threatening to go public with the code of the company. Once published online the propreitary information of the company being leaked would have led to the company becoming bankrupt. The matter had occurred on a Friday night and over the weekend recourse to law enforcement agencies would have been very difficult in Pakistan. I asked for the cellphone number of the contractor, called him up and warned him of the legal consequnces he would be facing. The Contractor took down the code and over the weekend with our help negotiated a deal to hand over the company’s proprietary information back to the company. It doesn’t get more practical than picking up the phone and head on tackling the problem directly with the source.