ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has suspended licences of the president and secretary of the Multan High Court Bar Association for allegedly misbehaving with Attorney-General Sardar Mohammad Latif Khan Khosa, who is also chairman of the council.

The council also debarred the president of the Peshawar Bar Association from holding the office. The three office-bearers have also been restrained from operating respective bar accounts.

On Monday, Latif Khosa, thrice elected as president of the Multan Bar, was forced to leave the association’s premises amid heated sloganeering and a scuffle among two groups of lawyers.

Later, the bar association barred his entry to the high court building for allegedly taking a stance detrimental to the lawyers’ cause.

In a hurriedly-called meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday, the executive committee considered a joint complaint of seven office-bearers of the Multan Bar Association against what they called “highly irresponsible” conduct of Multan Bar president Mahmood Ashraf and secretary Rana Naveed.

A PBC announcement said that its committee found the conduct of the two office-bearers to be gross misconduct and decided to refer the matter to the disciplinary committee of PBC for taking action against them.

“Their licence will remain suspended and they will cease to hold their offices,” it said.

The committee also took serious view of the conduct of Fazalur Rehman, president of the Peshawar District Bar Association, who had removed the name of PBC vice-chairman Haji Syed Rehman from the honour board of the bar association and banned his entry to premises. — Staff Reporter