LAHORE, Aug 5: The Pakistan Bar Council on Tuesday constituted a two-member committee to probe corruption charges levelled against Punjab Bar Council vice-chairman Arif Chaudhry.

Pakistan Bar Council appeal committee chairman Kazim Khan admitted the appeal filed by a Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) member, Sultan Muhammad Momin.

It is alleged that Mr Chaudhry had received Rs1.5 million from intelligence agencies to host a dinner in the honour of Punjab chief minister on May 30 in violation of the policy decision of lawyers’ Joint Action Committee.

The committee, comprising Punjab Bar members Abdul Aleem Pirzada and Mian Abbas, issued notice to Mr Chaudhry.

Mr Khan directed that the inquiry committee should be provided a copy of impugned no-confidence resolution, minutes of the PBC meeting held on Aug 2 along with the minutes of an inquiry committee (if already constituted to probe the allegations against Mr Chaudhry).

Meanwhile, Mr Khan suspended the operation of a resolution adopted at a recent PBC meeting in which it was demanded that vice-chairman’s seat at the JAC be restored forthwith as all the allegations previously levelled against him had proved to be false.

“The appellant’s contention has forced the Pakistan Bar that without the constitution of an inquiry committee, the allegations levelled against Arif Chaudhry couldn’t be dropped without any cogent reason. Though the members, who had moved a no-confidence motion against him, were at liberty to withdraw such motion which they did during that meeting, they couldn’t withdraw the allegations which they had levelled in that motion,” observed Mr Khan.

Mr Momin argued before the appeal committee chairman that after some members of the Punjab Bar had accused Mr Chaudhry of having received the amount, the LHCBA had cancelled his membership for having damaged the anti-LFO stance of the lawyers. He claimed that Mr Chaudhry was also forced to quit the meeting of inter-provincial coordination committee of the Pakistan Bar after the committee members from Sindh had refused to attend the meeting in his presence accusing him of having divided the community on the LFO issue.

“All these allegations levelled by the lawyers in a no-confidence motion against him still exist despite the withdrawal of the motion,” he contended, adding that the PBC’s resolution declaring these allegations baseless was of no value.

He alleged that Mr Chaudhry was a dishonest person as he had also received Rs50,000 fraudulently from a lawyer to bail him out in a complaint referred to him and the appeal of that lawyer against this conduct was also pending for adjudication before the disciplinary committee of the Pakistan Bar Council. According to the appellant, several FIRs on charges of bogus allotments of plots were also lodged against Mr Chaudhry during his stint as a legal adviser of the Lahore Development Authority.