November 23, 2008	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 24, 1429

PESHAWAR, Nov 22: The NWFP Bar Council on Saturday decided to file a damages suit to the tune of Rs100 million against Pakistan Bar Council vice- chairman Syed Rehman Khan for allegedly using derogatory language against lawyers.

A meeting of the NWFP Bar Council, presided over by its vice-chairman Qazi Mohammad Naeem, also decided to send an application to the PBC for termination of the licence of Syed Rehman on charges of committing professional misconduct.

The participants of the meeting accused Syed Rehman of using the PBC for settling his personal vendetta and accomplishment of his vested interests.

Through a unanimously-adopted resolution, the meeting called upon the government to declare last year’s imposition of emergency unconstitutional and restore the pre Nov-3 judiciary.The participants alleged that Syed Rehman had misused the plots meant for lawyers in the Regi Lalma Township and one of the plots was in the name of his wife. They added that some lawyers had been allotted two plots. They claimed that due to the same reason Syed Rehman had taken away the record of plots from the office of the bar council.

They maintained that the said act of Syed Rehman amounted to professional misconduct and they would approach the PBC for terminating his licence.

About the recent moves of the PBC regarding suspension of licences of Peshawar High Court Bar Association president Abdul Lateef Afridi and Peshawar District Bar Association president Fazlur Rehman Khan, the meeting observed that those acts were based on mala fide intentions.

The participants said Syed Rehman tried to sabotage the lawyers’ movement through his illegal steps, but had failed in achieving his anti-lawyers designs. They said he had used derogatory language against the lawyers’ movement and advocates of the NWFP for which a defamation suit would be filed against him wherein damages to the tune of Rs100 million would be claimed.