LAHORE: Expressing its resolve to bring the saboteurs of May 20 lawyers’ convention to justice, the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Thursday cancelled the membership of Punjab Governor Rafiq Rajwana and also banned his entry to the Bar.

A general house meeting of the LHCBA passed a unanimous resolution and cancelled the membership of Governor Rajwana, who is an advocate by profession, accusing him of hatching a conspiracy to sabotage the convention which the Bar hosted last week in collaboration with the Supreme Court Bar Association to press for the demand of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation in the wake of the Panama Papers verdict.

Speaking at the meeting, the Bar leaders alleged that a group of government’s lawyers at the behest of Governor Rajwana and Additional Attorney General Naseer Ahmad Bhutta attacked the convention and tried to divide the legal fraternity. They said the PML-N had a history of attacking the judiciary and its activists by attacking the Bar proved that the party did not honour democratic values.

LHCBA President Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said the “stooges” of the government failed to buy loyalties of lawyers. He lamented that even dictators did not dare commit such an act. He alleged that the Governor House was the hub of the whole conspiracy against the unity of lawyers.

Mr Ali maintained that the Bar would continue to demand resignation of the prime minister to ensure fair and transparent inquiry by the Joint Investigation Team.

The House also demanded that the governor apologise to the lawyers for, what it alleged, trying to damage the unity of the Bar.

The convention co-hosted by the SCBA and the LHCBA on May 20 had given a seven-day ultimatum to the prime minister to step down and appear before the JIT like an ordinary citizen. The proceedings of the convention were disrupted by a group of lawyers affiliated with the PML-N.

The LHCBA had announced cancellation of memberships of all those lawyers involved in the attack. The Bar members also set up a protest camp against the attack and chanted slogans against the prime minister and the governor.

In a statement, the governor’s spokesman denied the allegations and said Governor Rajwana fully believed in supremacy of law and had a great respect for the lawyers. He said the governor being a student of law could never think of any unconstitutional or undemocratic act.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017