LAHORE, June 4: A controversy within the Lahore High Court Bar Association deepened on Monday when two of its office-bearers opposed the president’s move of seeking additional powers to control financial affairs.

Bar president Ahsan Bhoon, in a general house meeting, floated a requisition that he be given additional powers to control the financial affairs. The requisition seems to have come forward in the backdrop of a controversy between the president and finance secretary Ruby Hayat Awan.

The president, in previous meetings of the bar, had alleged that the finance secretary was not signing cheques for the payment of expenses incurred upon the May 5 reception in honour of the chief justice of Pakistan.

The finance secretary and vice president Firdous Butt opposed the requisition. It created a pandemonium in the general house meeting when lawyers for and against the move started shouting.

Saying that he did not intend to curtail the powers of the finance secretary, the president claimed that he was just interested in having the power to use it in case of an emergency. Amid rumpus, the president asked the participants of the meeting to raise hands in favour and against of the requisition. The show of hand went in favour of the president, who announced that the requisition had been passed, and left the house hurriedly.

The two female office-bearers of the bar attempted to make speeches, but supporters of the president snatched microphone from them. Supporters of the two office-bearers shouted slogans against the president and chief justice of the Lahore High Court. They alleged that the president was working on an agenda of the chief justice to divide the bar over the issue of ongoing campaign against the suspension of chief justice of Pakistan.

Later, the bar secretary, Sarfraz Cheema, issued a press release on behalf of the president that the general house had approved an amendment in rules 43 and 46 of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, empowering the president of doing all business entitled to the finance secretary.

Later, the two office-bearers condemned the act of the president and termed the amendment against bar rules. They alleged that the president had been working on an agenda of sabotaging the ongoing campaign against the government over the issue of chief justice of Pakistan.

The house passed unanimously another resolution, cancelling the membership of advocate Ijaz Wahla for allegedly attacking the bar secretary, Sarfaraz Cheema, on May 5. —Staff Reporter