LAHORE, Sept 21: The All Pakistan Lawyers Conference, arranged by the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), for Saturday (today) here is scheduled to dent the lawyers’ unity being viewed as an essential ingredient for launching a successful movement for the restoration of democracy and against General Musharraf’s re-election.

The Lahore Bar Association (LBA) has decided to stay away from the conference as its president Sayed Muhammad Shah sees the conference as an attempt to divide lawyers.

LHCBA president Ahsan Bhon, who had planned the conference, had already expressed his distrust in the national action committee of lawyers. Bhon, whose affiliation with PPP is not hidden, says he will not let the NAP hijack the agenda of the movement of lawyers. He is keen to set the direction of movement for the LHCBA in accordance with consensus to be evolved in today’s conference.

Several lawyers claim that Bhon wants to divide lawyers to take the punch out of the movement in accordance with his political agenda. They say the LHCBA has no authority to call a national conference of lawyers because it was the prerogative of the Pakistan Bar Council.

They say Bhon had hand-picked representatives of lawyers for attending the conference in order to influence the agenda of the movement. “I was not invited by LHCBA to attend the conference,” said Sahibzada Anwar Hamid, SCBA vice president.

He said the lawyers’ movement for the independence of judiciary had met its purpose because every lawyer heeded the NAC call. “If the officer-bearers of LHCBA tried to keep away from the NAC’s agenda, Pakistan Bar Council could take action against them in this regard,” he said.

The LHCBA had earlier refused to heed the call NAC when the LBA followed it and took out a rally from Aiwan-i-Adl to the main gate of the Lahore High Court on The Mall. But the LHCBA neither welcomed the participants of the rally nor took out a rally itself to express unity with the members of their community at the lower courts

That day, addressing the general house of the LHCBA, Bhon had said he would not let the LHCBA guided by what he called the dictates of the NAC.

Hamid Khan, former president, Supreme Court Bar Association, expressed the hope the LHCBA followed the NAC’s call for the sake of democracy and unity of lawyers. He said the NAC was created by consensus and had the representation of all bars across Pakistan.

He said when the NAC had decided to give a strike call to mark the beginning of a movement against General Musharraf, it was done by the consent of the representatives of all the bars. Several lawyers say that LHCBA had been lagging behind during the movement for the restoration of democracy.

“The LHCBA had to go with the flow when every lawyer stood up to safeguard the independence of judiciary by waging a struggle for the restoration of the chief justice of Pakistan,” said Shahid Mahmood Bhatti, member of the Punjab Bar Council.