LAHORE: No-trust tabled against PBC executive chief
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE, April 3: A no-trust motion was tabled against executive committee chairperson Pervez Inayat Malik at a meeting of the Punjab Bar Council here on Saturday.
With most members of the Bar standing behind vice-chairperson Tanvirur Rehman Randhawa in his conflict with Mr Malik, the vote on the motion was deferred to another general meeting of the council, which would most probably be held towards the end of this month, apparently to keep Mr Malik under pressure.
The motion was tabled minutes after the council amended its constitution and incorporated in it a provision for no-confidence. The provision covers
the executive committee chairperson and other council members but not the vice-chairperson.
Advocate Azar Latif sought a no-confidence motion against the chairperson, accusing him of defaming the council and misleading people about its financial position. Mr Malik left the meeting in protest after the motion was allowed to be tabled by the general meeting with Mr Randhawa in the chair.
The vice-chairperson and the executive committee chairperson have been at daggers drawn since the new executive committee started working after elections about three months ago. As a result, council's working has suffered and it has not even been able to fulfil the constitutional obligation of forming a host of standing committees.
The council, about two months back, authorized the executive committee vice-chairperson and the chairperson to constitute committees, but they failed to complete the task and accused each other of being responsible for the delay.
The Punjab Bar Council's general house revised the mandate on Saturday, divesting the chairperson of the power and authorizing the vice-chairperson to constitute standing committees for the year.
The constitutional amendment, which has kept the vice-chairperson immune from impeachment, is not an even-handed measure and this factor alone may lead to more bad blood in the legal community.
The election of Mr Randhawa as vice-chairperson and Mr Malik as chairperson of the executive committee was a result of a bargain between groups of lawyers headed by Senator Sardar Mohammad Lateef Khosa and Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf Wahla who joined hands to defeat another group headed by Hamid Khan. The Wahla group accepted Mr Malik as Senator Khosa's nominee for the office of executive committee chairperson and got Mr Randhawa elected as vice-chairperson in the bargain.
The conflict between the two groups, particularly in the wake of an anomalous amendment to the PBC constitution, may lead to a difficult situation in the months to come. It may also result in new alliances and keep the troubled council on tenterhooks throughout its tenure till Dec 31.
