The Legal Aid Society (LAS) has launched NAZ Assist, Pakistan’s first multilingual legal advisory chatbot, designed to provide free legal advice in English, Urdu, Sindhi, and Pashto. Named in honor of Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, former Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court and a Judge of the Supreme Court, as well as the founder of LAS, NAZ Assist aims to bridge the justice gap that has resulted in the country being ranked an abysmal 130th out of 142 countries, according to the 2023 WJP Rule of Law Index.
The chatbot utilizes insights gathered from over 450,000 logged calls for legal assistance since 2014 by the Sindh Legal Advisory Call Center (SLACC), ensuring that the advice provided is relevant to Pakistan’s legal landscape.
In a statement to the press, the organization’s CEO, Barrister Haya Eman Zahid, said, “We designed this bot recognizing the country’s diverse linguistic background. The bot will also help make LAS more inclusive, as differently abled people who are deaf or mute can now get preliminary legal advice at a click of a button. This is also in line with the generational change ensuing with youngsters preferring to text over speaking over the phone.”
A notable feature of NAZ Assist is enabling users to verify every single piece of advice that the bot gives. Due to the nature of artificial intelligence, the bot always comes with a disclaimer about the possibility of inaccuracies. To verify, users can connect with a lawyer through the Sindh Legal Advisory Call Center’s Helpline at 0800-70806 at no cost or request a free callback from a lawyer by simply entering their name and number in the bot.
She continued, “With the launch of NAZ Assist, we are taking a significant step towards making legal advice accessible to everyone, regardless of their background. We also have programs for women facing gender-based violence, woman being denied their inheritance share, and minority girls facing forced conversion. We are not charging anything or keeping this behind a paywall. We genuinely want to help people access justice.”
People interested in learning more or trying out NAZ Assist can visit the LAS website at (http://www.las.org.pk) today.
