LAHORE, Sept 1: Lawyers wrangled and later scrambled for the microphone during a debate over passage of a verbal resolution to condemn the government for picking and choosing the deposed judges instead of restoring them en bloc here at a general house meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association.

The LHCBA held its general house meeting to chalk out its strategy after four sacked judges of the Lahore High Court took a fresh oath contrary to the lawyers’ demand for the restoration of all deposed judges.

Over a dozen members of the People’s Lawyers Forum (PLF), a PPP-affiliated group, reached the venue to stop speakers from criticising party’s co-chairman Asif Zardari and Attorney-General Sardar Latif Khan Khosa. Divided in two groups, the lawyers kept chanting slogans against each other throughout the proceedings of the house.

But the episode turned ugly when the PLF lawyers tried to snatch the microphone — obstructing LHCBA President Anwar Kamal from making a speech — for allowing their colleague Azar Latif advocate to address the bar. LHCBA Secretary Rana Asadullah kept asking the lawyers not to create chaos, and instead express their opinion on the dais.

The chaos erupted when Allah Bukhsh Gondal advocate said Zardari was not qualified to be elected as the president of Pakistan. The PLF lawyers broke into pro-Zardari slogans and tried to stop Gondal from proceeding with his speech.

Former LHCBA finance secretary Rabbiya Bajwa, during her speech, said the lawyers’ movement had drawn a clear divide between those who were sincere with the cause of an independent judiciary and those who carried their political agendas close to their hearts. She said the judges by taking a fresh oath had negated their stance against the PCO.

She also condemned Mr Zardari and said lawyers movement would continue till the restoration of all the deposed judges including chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Advocate Masood Ranjha of PLF advised the lawyers not to criticise senior lawyers including Attorney General Sardar Latif Khan Khosa. He said Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had become controversial as he indulged in politics by making speeches and leading rallies. He added Nawaz Sharif, who engineered the attack on the Supreme Court, now claimed to be the champion of the judiciary’s cause.

PLF’s Abid Saqi said no political party but the PPP and the ANP had spilled blood for the restoration of the judiciary, and it would be unjust to criticise them on this count. He said when sacked judges themselves were ready to take oath, whey the lawyers were creating a fuss? LHCBA President Anwar Kamal in his presidential address said judges had validated Musharraf’s PCO by taking fresh oath. He said lawyers’ movement was not for a person but for the independence of judiciary.

—Reporter