BAHAWALPUR, April 21: Local lawyers have belied the claim of the Lahore Bar president to the creation of the Bahawalpur bench of the high court. Mr Ahmad Awais had told newsmen at a press conference in Lahore on April 19 that the late Gen Ziaul Haq created LHC benches at Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur 'to weaken the judiciary and the unity of the lawyers in the name of facilitating the litigants.'

The LHCBA president had said the creation of the LHC benches at Bahawalpur, Multan and Rawalpindi was challenged and the high court was yet to take a decision on their legal status.

A number of senior lawyers, who wished to remain anonymous, told Dawn on Wednesday that the Baghdadul Jadid High Court was established here in 1937 in the period of the defunct Bahawalpur state. A circuit bench had been working in Bahawalpur when the West Pakistan High Court came into being.

A circuit bench continued to function when the Lahore High Court was established in 1970. The circuit bench was made a permanent bench in 1981 when Multan and Rawalpindi benches were created, they said.