LAHORE, July 27: The controversy over the refusal of the Lahore High Court Bar Association to host a reception for the delegates of an international judicial conference in August was resolved as an LHCBA general meeting on Thursday decided to invite the participants to a dinner.

The resolution to host the reception, moved by advocate Malik Hamid Sarfraz, was carried out ‘unanimously’ after which the bar’s executive committee’s decision to refuse the reception stands rescinded. The LHCBA also lauded, what it called, the judicial activism of the Supreme Court, saying it rendered credibility to the superior judiciary and gave a new hope to the people to realise their fundamental rights.

However, the decision has also served as a setback to the bar’s unity as Syed Manzoor Ali Gilani, an LHCBA executive committee member, tendered his resignation saying he could not remain associated to a body whose office-bearers had no regard for moral and democratic values.