LAHORE: Some 85 senior members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) including retired judges have opposed the stance taken by the Bar’s leadership on the incidents of hooliganism by lawyers at Multan seat and Principal Seat of the Lahore High Court.

In a letter written to SCBA President Rashid A Rizvi, these members expressed concern over a statement issued by the Bar regarding the incidents and contempt proceedings against Lahore High Court Bar Association’s Multan President Sher Zaman Qureshi pending with a larger bench of the LHC.

Retired judges including Munir A. Sheikh, Javed Buttar, Khalilur Rehman Khan, Karamat Nazir Bhandari and Syed Asghar Haider are among those who wrote the letter. Others include Abid Hassan Minto, Syed Raza Kazim, Kamal Azfar, Anwar Kamal, Aftab Gull, Shahzad Shaukat, Taffazul Haider Rizvi, Ahmer Bilal Sufi, Salman Akram Raja and Raheel Kamran Sheikh.

They also expressed concern over reports that the SCBA intended to call a nationwide agitation in support of Mr Qureshi and his stance of not appearing before the larger bench.

“As the bar association of our apex court, the SCBA should have been leading the fight against hooliganism and rowdiness by lawyers. We are, therefore, justified in expecting the SCBA to play a positive and leading role to protect the respect and integrity of our courts. Instead the press release dated Aug 10, 2017 glosses over the Multan events as ‘a very petty issue’, completely ignoring the hooliganism in the courtroom of the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court on Aug 2, 2017, and makes no call for action against those who committed these acts of hooliganism,” the letter says.

The members state that they stand firmly for rule of law and dignity of the Bar. But, they say, there can be no rule of law, and equally no dignity of the Bar, if lawyers openly flout their code of ethics and instead indulge in slogan mongering insides courtrooms, disrupt court proceedings, vandalise court property and refuse to obey orders of court.

“We therefore call upon the SCBA to take a clear stance supporting the settled norms of legal practice and disavowing the hooliganism of certain lawyers,” the letter concludes.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah would resume contempt proceedings against Sher Zaman Qureshi and another lawyer on Aug 21. The bench issued them contempt notices for their involvement in misbehaving with a judge working at Multan seat and also obstructing his court’s proceedings.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2017