September 25, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The Pakistan Bar Council has welcomed reappointment of deposed judges and invited Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar to visit its office early next month.

In a special meeting requisitioned by eight members, the PBC observed that it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that judges of superior judiciary sacked by a military government had been reinstated by a democratically elected government.

The invitation to Justice Dogar in effect challenges the stand of the National Coordination Council, a newly-formed lawyers’ body under the leadership of Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan, which recognises Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as the constitutional chief justice.

A delegation of the PBC recently called on Chief Justice Dogar to discuss problems faced by the legal fraternity, including lodging facilities for visiting lawyers, and requested him to provide extra space in the Supreme Court building to expand the PBC office.

An official statement issued after Wednesday’s meeting said that the rejoining of the senior judges would strengthen the judiciary and termed it an outcome of the lawyers’ movement “launched by the PBC”.

The PBC thanked the chief justice for allotting a wing in front of the council’s office and a full floor in the newly-built block in the Supreme Court building for its offices.

The PBC authorised its executive committee to invite the chief justice to visit its office and formally hand over the wing and announce allotment of the floor to the council.

The meeting demanded immediate withdrawal of amendments to the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, introduced by the last government. It praised Law Minister Farooq H. Naek and Attorney General Sardar Mohammad Latif Khosa for assuring the council that the amendments would be withdrawn.