Fraz Wahlah

As a leading international lawyer, tech entrepreneur and civil rights icon, Fraz Wahlah has been featured on some of the most prestigious media outlets including business & technology leadership magazines CIO, InfoWorld, and ComputerWorld, as well as the UK Parliamentary Review, Tech London, Dawn News, BBC World, and the BBC One TV  – in the USA, Germany, Norway, Malaysia, Pakistan and the UK.

In July 2019 Fraz Wahlah appeared on the crown jewel of daytime TV, Homes Under the Hammer series, on BBC One.

The television series is the BBC’s most successful show in the 10 am slot, regularly attaining a 30% market share for new episodes, which equates to approximately 1.5 million viewers per episode in the UK alone which is in addition to millions of viewers worldwide.

Fraz Wahlah has also been featured as a “Migrant Hero” on “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” campaign in London organised by JCWI, IOM and, MAX.

As our director he brings to Citizen Lawyer a decade of international legal practice experience during which he has advised and represented investors, entrepreneurs, celebrities, sports figures, royal families, and music and tech companies internationally.

Fraz Wahlah has qualified as an lawyer, adviser and barrister – in more than one jurisdiction internationally. He was first called to the Bar abroad as an Advocate High Courts, and later in England & Wales as a Barrister at the prestigious Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.

In the UK, however, Mr Wahlah practises solely as an immigration lawyer/adviser, and not as a barrister, under authorisation from the OISC – an organisation set up by the British Home Office to oversee the provision of immigration advice and services.

Fraz Wahlah comes from a family that is deeply rooted in history of fighting for civil rights, rule of law and democracy against tyranny and dictatorships.

The family’s three generations stood up to three dictators in Asia and Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Fraz Wahlah’s grandfather, Mr. Chaudhry Hussain Wahlah, fought Hitler’s Nazi alliance forces in the second World War as a soldier in the British Indian Army.

Fraz Wahlah’s mother, Um e Sleet Dhillon, a celebrated poetess, also took part in the movement against General Zia ul Haq’s Marshal law and dictatorship and faced detention multiple times along with Fraz and her husband Mr. MS Wahlah.

In August 2013, BBC published the iconic photograph of 4 year old Fraz Wahlah leading the MRD movement on the front-line with his father Mr. M.S. Wahlah.

BBC also broadcast a featured interview of Fraz Wahlah calling him the Flag-bearer of MRD (Movement for Restoration of Democracy). Fraz Wahlah had led the movement against dictatorship as child flag-bearer along with his father and at the peak of the movement Fraz Wahlah, from the tender age of 4, faced tear-gas, baton charge, and arbitrary arrest and detention along with his parents.

In 2015, Fraz Wahlah along with 343 leading British judges, Lords, lawyers and academics signed a statement calling for an ‘urgent, humane and effective governmental response to the refugee crisis’. Entitled ‘Call from the Legal Community for Urgent Action‘, the statement termed  the Government’s response of offering to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years as ‘too low, too slow and too narrow’. It was published in both The Times and The Guardian newspaper and is available to read in full on the Lawyers’ Refugee Initiative website.

In the Parliamentary Review, Fraz Wahlah argued how mindless populism and stoking far right wing sentiments breed fascism – urging the UK to revive the British values and become a beacon of Human Rights in an increasingly dark world. (Read the Press Release, or contact us to request a free copy of the Parliamentary Review)

In October 2010, Fraz Wahlah, while representing Pakistan at the 10th International Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, won the first ever International ICT Oscar (Silver Merit) for Pakistan in the ehealth category.

In 2017, Fraz Wahlah part-sponsored a memorial event to mark the 10th death anniversary of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at the Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.

Wahlah’s ancient history is recounted in renowned British historian C F Oldham’s book entitled “The Sun and the Serpent” published in London in 1905.

The subject of the book was the history of worship of the sun and the serpents in the Indian subcontinent. In the book, Mr Oldham, who was then Brigade Surgeon of British Indian Army and Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, refers to the Wahlah dynasty as the ancient Kings of Indus, “Lords of Arore”, “Tatha Multan ka rai” (The kings/rulers of Sindh, Tatha and Multan – the Indus Valley civilisation).

The book describes the Wahlah or Vahla dynasty, (also known as Bala, Vahlikas, Bahlika) as Solar Kings and Naga Rajas (Kings who worshipped the Sun and Serpents). Below are a few relevant excerpts from the book:

“The Kathis claim to have been allies of the Kauravas in the great war of the Mahabharata.* As already mentioned, they were a branch of the Kathias. An inscription from Ramchand- rapur, near Bundi in Rajputana, quoted by Colonel Tod, says that the warrior Takhya, who formed the garland (of skulls) on the neck of Mahadeo, was of the Catti (Kathi) tribe.* Closely connected with the Kathis, and apparently of the same stock,* are the Vahlas, or Bahlas, or Bahilkas, who are said to have been lords of Arore in the Indus valley, and whose chiefs were addressed by the bards as *’ Tatha Multan ka rai,*’ or kings of Tatha and Multan.*

This title is also given to the Kathis,^ and the term Kathiani bai, or Kathia lady, is sometimes applied to ladies of Vahla family.* Balas and Kathis are probably branches of the same people.

The name Vahla, or Bala, recalls that of the great Asm-a Bali of Patala, who also ruled from the mouth of the Indus to Multan. It seems at least possible that the Balika rais, who in later times held the same tract of country, may have been descendants of the Daitya king. We have seen, from the Mahabharata, that the BahUkas, or Takhas, occupied the country on the banks of the Indus at a very early period.* And the inscription upon the iron pillar at Delhi, which is supposed to have been erected by Chandra Gupta II, about a.d. 415, says that this ancient monument was erected in celebration of a victory over the Vahlikas of Sindhu. (Vahlas of Indus Valley)

* The Indus valley, therefore, down to the time when this pillar was first erected, was still held by Bahlika chiefs. Moreover, as we have already seen, Multan and the neighbouring country formed a part of the kingdom of Takhya at the time of Hiouen Tsiang’s visit in the seventh century.

Down to this period, therefore, the descendants of the Naga rajas still ruled in the Indus valley.”

Brigade Surgeon Charles Frederick Oldham, The Sun and the Serpent – Published by: Archibald Constable & Co Ltd, London – 1905