LAHORE, Nov 26: The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) in its much-awaited general house meeting on Monday cancelled membership of Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum.

The measure was put before the house by LHCBA President Ahsan Bhoon in a resolution, which was approved unanimously.

Bhoon told Dawn the government believed it could pressurise the bar by making amendments to the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act. “I want to make it clear the LHCBA was an autonomous body and could not be made to bow. If Qayyum thinks he has taken away powers from the bars to revoke licenses or cancel membership, I dare him to come and sit in the bar now,” he said.

The resolution also said the lawyers rejected the judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order. It also sought restoration of the judiciary to what it had been before Nov 3.

The resolution condemned the beating up of protesting lawyers on Nov 5, and sought action against those behind the police crackdown. The resolution lauded the media for its role during the movement for the restoration of rule of law and independence of judiciary and condemned curbs on electronic media.

The resolution also rejected the interim government and the elections being arranged under it besides rejecting the formation of Election Commission of Pakistan. The resolution sought holding of elections under pre-Nov 3 judiciary.

The resolution urged the lawyers not to appear before the judges who had taken oath under the PCO. It said the lawyers would hold meeting every Thursday to discuss issues of national importance, besides setting up hunger strike camps within the bar premises to record their protest against the regime and the judges under the PCO. It also sought release of the detained lawyers and prayed for the health of former Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A Malik and Justice Tariq Mahmood (retired).

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Justice Fakharunnisa Khokar (retired) said the way police intruded into the premises of the Lahore High Court and beat up male and female lawyers was highly condemnable. She said: “The way the female lawyers were dragged by their hair and abused had never been witnessed in the history of Pakistan.” She said the lawyers’ peaceful struggle would continue till the people of Pakistan were empowered in a true democratic dispensation.

LHCBA Secretary Sarfraz Cheema said it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that police broke into barrooms and beat up lawyers brutally. He lauded judges who did not take oath under the PCO and praised all those lawyers who went through the rigours of imprisonment.

He said the lawyers had launched the movement to shake off dictatorship and would not give an inch unless the desired results were achieved.

LHCBA President Ahsan Bhoon called Nov 5 a black day which had no parallel in the country’s history. He added on the day Gen Musharraf imposed martial law, and broke all norms of decency, morality and ethics. —Reporter