The 79-year-old, who started his career as a lawyer, has renewed his practising certificate and is registered under the legal firm Messrs Daim & Gamany, the entity where he was once a partner.

He is listed as the 14th most senior lawyer, having being admitted to the Malayan Bar on Feb 27, 1961.

According to the Bar Council website, he obtained his certificate to practise law on Jan 12.

It is unclear why Abdul Daim Zainudin, as stated in the certificate, is returning to become a practising lawyer.

Lawyer R Kengadharan said a person who holds a valid certificate could represent clients in any court in the peninsula.

“He could also meet clients who are serving time in prison,” he added.

Daim graduated from Lincoln’s Inn London. At the age of 21, he was called to the English Bar in 1959.

Upon his return to Malaya, he started reading in the chambers of Pillai & Co and later the chambers of Shearn Delamore, which was then the largest law firm in Kuala Lumpur.

In 1961, he decided to move and work in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, under the tutelage of Wan Mustaffa Wan Ali, who was legal adviser to the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PMIP), which later became known as Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS).

After his stint in Kota Bharu, he joined the Malaysian civil service as a magistrate. He became the president of the Sessions Court in Johor and subsequently became deputy public prosecutor in Ipoh, Perak.

He resigned from the service in 1965, returned to Kuala Lumpur and joined the law firm of Allen & Gledhill for the next three years till his resignation in 1968 to start his own law practice at Daim & Gamany.

In 1969, however, he decided to venture into business.

Daim was finance minister twice —from 1984 to 1991 and between 1999 and 2001.