LAHORE, June 8: The first-ever bar gathering arranged by the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) for the president on Sunday was a “show of force” regarding the bar members’ participation.

Whereas the leadership of the Lahore High Court Bar Association and certain LBA office-bearers had boycotted the function, lawyers from various districts turned up in large numbers in their personal capacity besides several hundred LBA members.

The ceremony had elicited a series of events over the last one week reflecting the bar infighting. The Supreme Court Bar Association, the Pakistan Bar Council, the LHCBA and a dissident faction of the Punjab Bar Council had announced a boycott of the ceremony in pursuance of a policy decision not to invite any government official, including the president, governors, chief ministers and provincial ministers, to a bar gathering until the fate of the LFO was decided by the parliament.

The LBA officer-bearers claimed that some 700 members had attended the ceremony, including the presidents of the bar associations of both Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi and Multan benches. The organizers made announcements on microphones regarding the arrival of office-bearers of the district bar associations of Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, Khanewal, Attock, Pak Pattan, Sargodha, Dera Ghazi Khan, Narowal, Gujrat and Hafizabad. The lawyers had been instructed to strictly observe the bar dress code.

A separate block had been set up for female lawyers, which was occupied by lawyers practising both at the subordinate courts and the Lahore High Court.

PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Senator Dr Khalid Ranjha, provincial law minister Raja Mohammad Basharat, the Lahore district and sessions judge, the LHC registrar, provincial adviser Rana Ejaz Ahmad Khan, the provincial advocate-general and his associate law officers, federal law officers and other key figures were present on the occasion.