ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Bar Council — the apex regulatory body of lawyers — on Tuesday demanded withdrawal of criminal cases, disciplinary proceedings and order for removal of illegal chambers built in a football ground of Islamabad and called for a strike on February 25 to protest over action against the black coats over the Islamabad High Court rampage.

PBC’s stalwarts from Punjab —Masood Chishti, Azam Nazir Tarrar, Ahsan Bhoon, Chaudhry Khizer Rehman, Abid Saqi and Tahir Nasarullah Warriach — did not attend the meeting requisitioned at the behest of Senator Farooq H. Naek.

According to Mr Chishti, the PBC members from Punjab were busy in the campaign of their respective candidates for the upcoming election of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) scheduled for February 27.

Only 13 of the 23 members of the apex regulatory body attended the meeting. They included PBC vice chairman Khushdil Khan, Mohammad Fahim Wali, Munir Ahmed Kakar, Haroon Rashid, Mohammad Tariq Afridi, Syed Qalbe Hassan, Hassan Raza Pasha, Shafqat Mehmood Chohan, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan, Farooq Naek, Riazat Ali Sahar, Shahab Saraki and Abid Shahid Zuberi.

The PBC adopted a six-point resolution containing demands for withdrawal of the FIRs registered against 32 lawyers in connection with the Feb 8 attack on the IHC Chief Justice Block, withdrawal of contempt of court notices issued to the advocates and the disciplinary proceedings initiated against the lawyers in connection with the rampage. The PBC also called for suspension of the order for further demolition of the chambers of lawyers of district courts.

The IHC chief justice, while disposing of a petition seeking restoration of Football Ground in Islamabad’s Sector F-8, had ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to remove the illegally constructed chambers by March if the lawyers would not voluntarily vacate these till February 28.

The PBC also issued a countrywide strike call on February 25 to express solidarity with the members of Islamabad Bar Council and High Court and District Bar Association of Islamabad and announced that the Lawyers’ Representatives Convention would be convened in the first week of March if their demands were not met.

Interestingly, the PBC’s demand for withdrawal of the disciplinary proceedings is contradictory to what its vice chairman Khushdil Khan has written to IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah on February 15.

Mr Khan in the letter stated: “The responsible and guilty advocates should be taken to task for giving them exemplary punishment as per law, in case, a solid evidence is available against them for which the Hon’ble Superior Courts have ample powers under the ‘Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 1973’.”

He said that if the court would forward references against the delinquent lawyers, the bar councils would definitely take stern action against them.

Subsequently, the IHC chief justice had on February 18 issued notices to 21 lawyers and sought their reply by February 25.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2021