LAHORE, April 23: The Lahore High Court Bar Association on Tuesday called for cancellation of practising licences of the lawyers ‘strengthening President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s hands to achieve their personal ends.’

An emergency general body meeting of the association condemned the proposed creation of LHC benches at Faisalabad and Sargodha and asked the government to withdraw the decision immediately. An earlier meeting on the issue was adjourned on April 19 in the absence of a firm government decision.

The LHCBA was prompted to resume the adjourned session urgently by Sargodha lawyers’ meeting with the president on Monday and a newspaper report saying that the Faisalabad and Sargodha benches will start functioning in the first week of May.

Any decision on cancellation of licences and termination of Bar membership can only be taken by the provincial bar councils and the LHCBA can only recommend action in this regard. However, the Punjab Bar Council is spilt on the issue along divisional lines. Most of the PBC members from the Faisalabad and Sargodha divisions support the creation of the proposed new benches and it would be difficult for the council to move in the matter.

Tuesday’s resolution of the LHCBA did not elaborate whether the association would also seek the ouster of federal and provincial law ministers, Dr Khalid Ranjha and Rana Ijaz Ahmad Khan, both senior members of the Bar. In fact, the latter, is a sitting member of the Pakistan Bar Council — the apex statutory body of the legal profession — while the former twice served as LHCBA president.

Addressing the LHCBA meeting on Tuesday, Pakistan Bar Council members Hafiz Abdur Rahman Ansari and Kazim Khan and Punjab Bar Council member Anwarul Haq Pannu described the creation of benches as ‘political bribery’ and urged President Musharraf to quit instead of prolonging his term through a referendum.

Meanwhile, Bar council and association office-bearers will announce their future course of action at a press conference on Wednesday.

A procession will be taken out on April 25, which has been declared a protest day against the referendum.