Naseem Bajwa

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Naseem Ahmed Bajwa, an unregistered barrister called in 2012 with a background as an advocate of the Lahore High Court, was found guilty of two charges of professional misconduct for conducting litigation without authorisation by filing two Judicial Review Claim Forms at the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) in November 2019 and stating he was acting as representative. The Panel found he was at least reckless and was not authorised to conduct litigation, rejecting his reliance on 'sponsor' status or foreign-lawyer status. No express finding of dishonesty was made (he did not describe himself as a barrister and had not attempted deception). At the sanction stage, because Mr Bajwa had already been disbarred in separate proceedings with no pending appeal, the Tribunal took no further action and made no order as to costs.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct could amount to a criminal offence under the Legal Services Act 2007
• Mr Bajwa was a specialist immigration practitioner who should have been aware of the relevant rules
• He had at least some suspicion as to his ability to file the claim forms and acted at least recklessly
• He improperly delegated his own professional responsibility to a tribunal official

Mitigating factors:

• No complaint from the applicants and both applications appear to have been settled
• No significant consequences arising from the conduct
• Advanced age (nearing 87) and poor physical and mental health
• Significant unexplained delay by the BSB in bringing proceedings