ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice chairman Khushdil Khan on Thursday directed the provincial and Islamabad bar councils to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the office-bearers of bar associations who passed resolutions against the judges of superior courts.

The directive came against the backdrop of alleged move by the law ministry to link the provision of grant-in-aid to the passing of resolutions by bar associations against judges of the superior judiciary.

The PBC vice chairman said the federal and provincial governments were bound under Section 57 of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973 to provide grant-in-aid to the bar councils/associations, adding that it was not personal money of the law ministry.

Ministry accused of using grant-in-aid as a tool to get lawyers’ support

Therefore, he said, the alleged move on the part of the law ministry asking and pressurising the bar associations to adopt resolutions against judges of the Supreme Court, especially Justice Qazi Faez Isa, was regretful. Khushdil Khan expressed serious concern over the role of the law ministry and its move against independent judges and said the lawyers across the country were united and no one would succeed in creating division among them.

He said the lawyers would protect independent judges and go to any extent for independence of judiciary and rule of law. He regretted that the ministry was using the grant-in-aid as a tool to get support of the lawyers against independent judges.

On Wednesday, however, the law ministry categorically denied that the federal government was pressurising tehsil, district and high court bar associations to adopt resolutions against sitting judges of the Supreme Court and higher judiciary.

A spokesperson for the ministry said the impression being created in this regard was incorrect and fake and that neither the federal government nor the law ministry had issued any such instructions.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2021