LAHORE, April 28: The Lahore High Court Bar Association said on Saturday it had decided to invite all the high court judges to May 5 reception to be held for the nonfunctional Chief Justice of Pakistan.

“We met with the chief justice at his residence in Islamabad the other day. He himself decided the date for the reception to be held on the high court premises,” bar secretary Sarfraz Cheema said here at a press conference.

Bar president Ahsan Bhoon said the people belonging to political parties, rights groups, NGOs and student organizations would also be invited to the reception, but no one except lawyers would be allowed to enter the court premises. The non-lawyer invitees, he added, would be asked to converge on the roads around the LHC premises and no party flags would be allowed.

Saying that Justice Chaudhry would reach Lahore by road at 4pm, Mr Bhoon added the CJP would also be given receptions by all bars en route to Lahore.

The bar has constituted six committees to make arrangements for the reception.

Interim govt: A petition filed in the Lahore High Court on Saturday sought directions to the government to form an interim government under the supervision of the suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan to hold general elections within a year.

Advocate MD Tahir, through the petition, also sought induction of some senior lawyers in the proposed interim set up.

Making the Chief Election Commissioner and Federal Government respondents, the petitioner submitted that the CJP Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was a strong man in whom people of Pakistan had already deposed confidence.

The petitioner stated that he (the CJP) could play a vital role in bringing the country out of the present `uncertainty and chaos’, therefore, it would be proper to form an interim government comprising CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Supreme Court Bar Association President Munir A Malik, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsen, Pakistan Bar Council Vice-Chairman Ali Ahmad Kurd, Dr Farooq Hassan, Justice Tariq Mehmood (retired), SCBA ex-President Hamid Khan, Justice Abdul Majeed Tiwana (retired), and office-bearers of SCBA, LHCBA and LBA.

The petitioner suggested that the proposed interim setup be made bound to hold free and fair elections in the country within a year, adding that he was sure that the results of polls if held under the supervision of judiciary and the lawyers would be acceptable to all.