MUSTAFA SHERPAO
LL.B (Hons.), Barrister at Law
Advocate High
Mustafa Aftab A. Sherpao is a founding Partner at Mohmand & Sherpao (the “Firm”). Mustafa holds an LL. B. (Honours) degree from Cardiff University and was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in 2007.
Mustafa joined Hafeez Pirzada Law Associates in 2007 where he acted as an Associate for over nine years along with practicing independently before becoming a Partner at the Firm. He has extensive experience both in litigation before various courts and tribunals and in providing general corporate and legal advisory services. Before returning to Pakistan in 2007, Mustafa also had experience of practicing in the United Kingdom.
Mustafa regularly appears before the High Courts of Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Balochistan in a variety of cases and covering most of the services that the Firm provides including inter alia constitutional, tax, oil & gas, mining, power generation, public sector contracts and procurement, election laws, general civil matters, labour and service matters, contractual disputes, environmental laws, anti-dumping, defamation, white collar crime and other matters. Besides appearing before the High Courts of Pakistan, Mustafa also appears before the Election Commission of Pakistan, the National Tariff Commission, the Competition Commission of Pakistan, the appellate bench of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.
Mustafa is regularly engaged by both local and foreign companies operating in Pakistan for the provision of general corporate legal advice on company law, regulatory compliance, contractual, constitutional, employment and labour matters, rent and tenancy issues, and other day to day legal matters. In addition to the foregoing, Mustafa regularly provides advice to government and multilateral institutions. He also provides advice to political parties and senior politicians, as a part of which he was inter alia involved in the process of drafting the Constitutional (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010 with the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform.
The full curriculum vitae of Mustafa can be downloaded at
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS
Post Graduate:
- PG Dip (Law) Bar Vocational Course – Inns of Court School of Law (City University), London (2007)
Undergraduate:
- LL.B (Honours) – Cardiff University, Wales (2006)
PROFESSIONAL LEGAL MEMBERSHIPS
- The Honourable Society of Grays Inn – Called to the Bar in 2007, Member since 2005
- Enrolled as an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan since 2008
- Member Punjab Bar Council
- Member Islamabad High Court Bar Association
- Member Islamabad Bar Association
LEGAL EXPERIENCE AND EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
- Hafeez Pirzada Law Associates, Islamabad Associate 2007 to 2016
- Independent Practice, Islamabad 2007 to 2016
- Mohmand & Sherpao, Islamabad Partner 2016 to date
AREAS OF LEGAL PRACTICE AND GENERAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
General Corporate/Commercial/Company Advisory and Litigation:
- Undertaking civil and commercial litigation before all five High Courts and assisting Senior Counsel with proceedings before the Supreme Court in various matters including: Appeals, Writ Petitions, Company Petitions, Banking Matters, Trade Remedy Matters, XII Tax References, Civil Suits, Reviews, Revisions and other Company and Commercial matters.
- Advising on a wide range of civil and commercial laws including, inter alia, company law, acquisitions (including equity and asset based acquisitions), anti-trust laws, regulatory issues (including power, oil & gas, mining, telecommunication), banking, service contracts, foreign investments, construction contracts, joint ventures, concession agreements, privatization and petroleum laws.
Energy, Mining and Power Generation:
- Acting as Pakistan counsel for BHP Minerals International Exploration Inc. in connection with the Reko Diq Project, a large Copper and Gold mining project located in Balochistan and representing the company in related litigation before the Supreme Court.
- Acting as counsel for Munda Hydropower Limited in connection with a 740MW Multipurpose Dam Project to be executed in the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and representing the company in related litigation before the Islamabad High Court.
- Acting as counsel for Kamoki Energy Limited (Tapal Group) and Reshma Power Generation (Private) Limited (Ruba Group) and appearing in related litigation involving the legality and validity of contracts related to rental power projects.
- Advising Sindh Carbon Energy Limited, an English listed company, in connection with the establishment in Pakistan of two coal fired power projects.
- Advising a Pakistan company in relation to execution of the Gumat Nar 50MW Hydropower Plant project in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
- Advising a number of companies involved in the businesses of mining activities and the extraction of minerals within various parts of Pakistan including inter alia MBK Coal Company (Loralai, Balochistan), AS Mining (Private) Limited (D. I. Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and New Star Marble Industry (Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).
Oil & Gas:
- Advising companies on a host of matters involving or relating to inter alia Gas Sale & Purchase Agreements; LPG Sale and Purchase Agreements; Petroleum Concession Agreements, Joint Operating Agreements and Joint Venture Agreements and other regulatory and corporate matters.
- Advising the Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Companies Association on the impact of the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010 on the incidence XIII of ownership as well as the distribution of executive and legislative authority over mineral oil and natural gas of the Federation and the Provinces.
- Acting as counsel for GDF Suez in relation to a contract involving the import and purchase of Liquefied Natural Gas by the Government of Pakistan and appearing in related litigation.
- Acting as counsel in cases before the Supreme Court related to the precedence of Provinces in which well-heads of natural gas are situated over other parts of Pakistan in meeting their requirements.
- Advising and acting as counsel for companies in or relating to the oil and gas industry including Tullow Developments (Pakistan) Limited, Saif Energy Limited, Mesa Petroleum (Private) Limited, Weatherford Oil Tools Middle East Limited and Weatherford Drilling International (BVI) Limited.
- Advising and acting as counsel for Sichuan South Gas Compressor Co. Ltd. in connection with a Low Pressure Gas Project related to Kunnar Field in Sindh, including drafting a Gas Sale/Purchase Agreement executed with the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited and appearing in related litigation.
- Advising and acting as counsel for the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited.
Tax:
- Advising and acting as counsel for Pepsi-Cola International (Private) Limited on various issues and representing the company in multiple cases before the Lahore High Court involving disputes relating to the imposition of income tax, excise duty and consequential sales tax liability amounting to several million dollars.
- Advising and acting as counsel for Weatherford Oil Tools Middle East Limited in multiple tax references and appeals before the Islamabad High Court.
- Acting as counsel for the Federal Bureau of Revenue, Government of Pakistan (FBR) and representing the FBR before the Islamabad High Court in litigation relating to disputes with several oil and gas companies on the methodology for computing depletion allowance.
- Acting as counsel for Dewan Salman Fibre Limited, a large manufacturer of polyester staple fibre, before the Islamabad High Court in litigation challenging the withdrawal of certain time specific tax exemptions by the Government of Pakistan.
Constitutional:
- Instituting a number of Constitutional Petitions before the High Courts on a range of issues including: challenging the Constitutional validity of the Competition Act, 2010 on behalf of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association before the Lahore High Court and on behalf of the Pakistan Poultry Association before the Islamabad High Court; and challenging the Constitutional validity of the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Act, 1996 before the Sindh High Court.
- Acting as counsel for Dr. Mubashir Hassan in the Constitutional Petition filed before the Supreme Court successfully challenging the validity of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007.
- Challenging the sugar sector regulatory framework put into effect by the Federal and Provincial governments on behalf of the sugar industry of the Punjab before the Lahore High Court.
- Appearing in a number of matters involving questions of administrative law and judicial review of public actions.
- Advising Heartfile, a non-profit NGO think tank on a range of issues including the distribution of legislative and executive authority between the Federation and the Provinces under the Constitution in respect of matters relating to Health as a consequence of the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010.
Election Laws and Advice to Political Parties:
- Extensive experience in Election laws and conducting a number of Election Petitions and Appeals involving constituencies from all four Provinces as well as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
- Advising a political party having representation in the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform and being involved in drafting the Constitutional (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010 and the Constitutional (Nineteenth Amendment) Act, 2010.
- Advising a political party in relation to electoral reform and drafting proposed amendments to various election laws currently under consideration before the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms.
- Representing a political party before the General Election Inquiry Commission which submitted its report on the validity, legality, transparency and fairness of the 2013 General Elections in Pakistan.
- Drafting and amending bills presented before the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including inter alia the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prevention of Conflict of XV Interest Bill, 2014 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Teaching, Promotion and use of Pashto) Language Bill, 2010.
Labour and Service Laws and Human Resource Development:
- Advising a number of local and foreign entities (including multinationals) on Pakistan Labour law including Federal and Provincial law and rendering advice on drafting and amending corporate policy to conform to Pakistan law.
- Undertaking civil litigation related to Labour law and Service matters before a number of Courts.
- Advising Weatherford Drilling (BVI) Limited on Pakistan Labour law and acting as Counsel for the company in related litigation.
- Advising the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) on Pakistan Labour law in general and also the KESC Officers Service Rules, 2002 and the KESC Officers Service Policy, 2010 and acting as Counsel for KESC in related litigation before the Supreme Court
- Advising Dech Enterprise (Private) Limited on Pakistan Labour law including inter alia a review of the entire applicable legal and statutory framework; drafting detailed service contracts; advising on compensation and severance policies including the use of performance based bonuses, provident funds and gratuities.
Miscellaneous:
- Advising Agility, formerly known as Public Warehousing Company, a leading provider of integrated logistics in relation to the Pakistan Customs System Project employing proprietary bespoke software.
- Advising Phillip Morris (Pakistan) Limited on the legality of conducting marketing activities of cigarettes and tobacco products in restaurants under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers Health Ordinance, 2002 and other relevant applicable laws.
- Advising and acting as counsel for Aerotron (Private) Limited, the former Independent Representative for Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of the United States of America in Pakistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Afghanistan and appearing in related litigation before the Islamabad High Court.
- Acting as counsel for ICI Pakistan Limited and representing the company in a number of cases before courts in Lahore and Islamabad.
- Acting as counsel for JDW Sugar Mills Limited, one of Pakistan’s largest sugar mills, and representing the company in multiple litigation before the Lahore High Court.
- Acting as counsel to Dawood Capital Management Limited, a company engaged in the business of Asset Management and Investment Advisory Services and representing the company before the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the Islamabad High Court in litigation related to alleged violation of provisions of the Non-Banking Finance Companies and Notified Entities Regulations, 2008.
- Acting as counsel for Pak-Amercian Fertilizer Limited in litigation before the Islamabad High Court involving a dispute with the Federal Government related to subsidized feedstock gas price.
- Acting as counsel for Bestway (Holdings) Limited in litigation before the Lahore High Court related to a transaction involving the acquisition of shares in United Bank Limited from the Abu Dhabi Group.
- Acting as counsel for Bestway Cement Limited in litigation before the Islamabad High Court.
REPORTED JUDGMENTS:
- Munda Hydropower Limited versus The Federation of Pakistan (2009 MLD 526) [Civil Suit relating to a 740MW Hydel Power Plant]
- Munda Hydropower Limited versus The Federation of Pakistan (2009 MLD 414) [Interlocutory proceedings in Civil Suit]
- Dr. Mubashir Hassan versus The Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2010 Supreme Court 265) [Vires of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)]
- Shahid Mehmood versus Naureen Ijaz (2012 MLD 1594) [Family Law – Powers of Executing Courts]
- Human Rights Case No. 7734/G of 2009 (2012 SCMR 773) [Rental Power Plants Case]
- Aerotron (Private) Limited versus The Federation of Pakistan & Others (2014 CLC 1630) [Blacklisting of Agent by the Ministry of Defence]
- Maulana Abdul Haque Baloch versus Government of Balochistan (PLD 2013 SC 641) [Reko Diq Gold and Copper Mine case]
- Dewan Salman Fibre Limited versus Federation of Pakistan (2015 PTD 2304) [Constitutional Petition successfully challenging the withdrawal of time-bound fiscal incentives]