ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: The Pakistan Bar Council on Saturday took note of the mushrooming of ‘unauthorised’ bar associations and warned that the bodies not falling directly under its umbrella and not governed by the provincial bar councils would not be recognised.

“The PBC will only recognise and encourage bar associations functioning at different levels under the Rules of Pakistan and Provincial Bar Councils and those associations and forums functioning without recognition and backing of the Rules of Bar Councils will be discouraged,” a five-member rules committee of the PBC said at a meeting. PBC member Pervez Inayat Malik presided over the meeting.

“What we mean … is to discourage creating service bar associations at the level of the federal service tribunal and provincial service tribunal,” one of the participants of the meeting told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

The rules committee, he said, had to decide either to prescribe rules for the functioning of such associations or to reject suggestions regarding creation of more associations.

The committee resolved that in the presence of bar associations already in existence at sub-division, district, high court and the Supreme Court levels and functioning under relevant rules, there was no need for other bar associations, he said.