LAHORE, Aug 4: The Punjab Bar Council has issued a call to bar associations across the province to observe Aug 10 as a black day to protest the government-sponsored move of curbing the independence of bar councils by giving judges of superior courts powers to take disciplinary action against lawyers.

Punjab Bar Council vice-chairperson Chaudhry Tanvirur Rehman Randhawa, executive committee chairperson Pir Syed Masood Ahmad Chishti and former vice-chairperson Mohammad Ramzan Chaudhry said in a news release here on Wednesday that the government was understood to be moving an amendment to Section 54 of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act-1973 to deprive bar councils of the statutory right of proceeding against lawyers on charges of professional misconduct.

Punjab Bar Council leaders appealed to all bar associations across the province to hoist black flags atop bar buildings and wear black armbands while appearing in courts on Aug 10. The bar associations, they said, should also hold meetings to adopt resolutions rejecting the government move.

"It is a sinister move aiming to reopen a settled issue. By empowering courts to take disciplinary action against the offending lawyers, the government wants not only to cause a split in the legal community but also harm the bar-bench relations," they said.

They asked the judiciary to distance itself from the government move as it was going to serve no cause of the legal community and would only malign superior courts.

They said a meeting of the PBC general house was being called on Aug 10 to decide the future line of action. They said the community supported the amendment proposed by the Pakistan Bar Council which was pending with the Senate.

AWAIS: Meanwhile, Lahore High Court Bar Association president Ahmad Awais and secretary Azam Nazir Tarar have also rejected the addition of Section 54(a) to the act and said it was aimed at curbing the powers of bar councils.