ISLAMABAD, July 12: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has recommended direct enrolment of former Lahore High Court (LHC) judge Fakharun Nisa as an advocate of the Supreme Court by relaxing relevant rules.

The PBC enrolment committee, which met on Saturday (July 10) in Lahore, but its decisions were issued here on Monday from Islamabad, said the recommendation was made on an application of the recently-retired judge from the LHC, Fakharun Nisa.

She is seeking enrolment as an advocate of the apex court under the Supreme Court Rules 1980 in relaxation of rules on the basis of her experience. The PBC meeting was presided over by Supreme Court's Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari and Rasheed A. Razvi attended it as members.

The committee decided 20 applications of different lawyers and after interviewing them decided to enrol nine of them as advocates of the Supreme Court, eight from Lahore: Asmat Kamal, Chaduhry Muhammad Din Ansari, Shahzad Nasir, Salim Khan Chechi, Rana Amir Ahmed Khan, Dr Asghar Ahmed Rana, Mian Muhammad Hanif and Khalid Mahmood Farooqi. While the remaining one was from Faisalabad, Amjad Hussain Malik.

Rest of the applicants, the PBC said, were not eligible for the enrolment. The PBC, while considering the application of advocate Muhammad Anwar Warriach of Lahore, observed that he had delayed by 22 years to move his application for enrolment to the PBC after getting the fitness certificate from the LHC.

As he could not explain the delay to the satisfaction of the enrolment committee, his request for enrolment was declined. But he was given an option to apply again.