ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: Taking action for violating its discipline, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has suspended membership of Naeem Sarwar, its vice president, for hosting a farewell dinner in honour of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the SCBA presided over by its president, Kamran Murtaza, here on Wednesday. Mr Sarwar was accused of misusing the name of executive committee of the association at the dinner on Tuesday night.

“Mr Sarwar misused the insignia and monogram of the association, otherwise considered to be the premier body of lawyers, while presenting a shield to the chief justice, which he should not have done,” a senior member of the SCBA told Dawn.

Going against the association’s traditions, the SCBA president had decided not to host the farewell dinner for the chief justice to express anger over the Nov 26 incident in which a number of lawyers from Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad and D.G. Khan were thrashed by police in Islamabad.

The lawyers had gathered outside the Supreme Court building to protest against the delay in establishment of benches of the Lahore High Court at the respective divisional headquarters.

The SCBA initially held the registrar of the Supreme Court responsible for the incident and demanded his resignation. But when the demand was not met, the bar association decided to cancel the dinner it had planned for the chief justice.

Under the SCBA rules, Mr Sarwar can move an appeal against his suspension before the Pakistan Bar Council which has also decided not to host any dinner for the chief justice.

Both the SCBA and PBC also decided not to attend Wednesday’s dinner hosted by the Supreme Court for the outgoing chief justice.