RAWALPINDI, Jan 2: The officials of the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday did not allow the president of the Bar, Chaudhry Ikram, to talk to newsmen in the premises of the court as tension between the bar and the bench could not be diffused.

The dispute between the Bar and the Bench, begun over the construction of a library, could not be defused despite orders of Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain, transferring four judges of the court and suspending Additional Registrar Arshad Cheema.

Justice Javed Buttar, a senior judge of Lahore High Court, specially came to Rawalpindi on Thursday to asses the situation and visited the Rawalpindi Bench and the library building which has been demolished.

The administration of the Lahore High Court had demolished the structure of an under-construction library of the Bar on Monday night. When the newsmen went there to cover the incident the next day, they were detained by the police and were released only after the intervention of the Punjab chief minister and the president of the High Court Bar Association.

The chief justice of LHC had on Wednesday suspended the Acting Registrar of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, Arshad Javed Mir, and appointed Arshad Cheema in his place.

The Chief Justice had also transferred Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq, Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan, Justice Tanvir Bashir Ansari and Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha. The cause-list has been cancelled and the court will start working from the next week.

Justice Bashir A. Mujahid and Justice Raja Sabir would be sitting at the Rawalpindi Bench from next week.

The office-bearers of the Lahore High Court Bar Association said that the library building construction had been continuing for the last three weeks, and four judges of the high court had also visited the place.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan had also contributed Rs200,000 for the same library in March 2002. The Chief Justice of the LHC had also contributed Rs50,000 and promised Rs500,000 more, they said.

They said that Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court was made to believe by certain quarters that it was an illegal construction whereas the plan of the construction had been submitted to the high court administration and Justice Tassadiq Jillani had visited the under construction library.

Chaudhry Ikram said the matter was discussed between the bar representatives and it was decided that the second storey would be not raised till the requirements of architecture were fulfilled.

The Bar bodies condemned the high-handedness of the court officials and demanded that the services of those officials responsible for the action should be terminated.

The President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Mr Hamid Khan, and other office-bearers also condemned the act of imprisonment of lawyers and journalists.

They said it was against the freedom of press.