LAHORE, Aug 10: The legal fraternity observed black day here on Tuesday to protest against the proposed amendment to the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, which delegates to the superior judiciary power to take action against lawyers on charges of misconduct.

The Punjab Bar Council also announced a protest march from the Bar council building to the Assembly Hall on Aug 18. Following the black day call given by the Punjab Bar Council against the proposed incorporation of Section 54(a) in the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act-1973, provincial lawyers wore black arm-bands and raised black flags atop bar offices and at other places. From various parts of the province the PBC received reports of a very positive response to the call.

Lawyers were not called to boycott courts, and they appeared in courts wearing black arm-bands. On Lahore High Court premises and at lower courts, lawyers placed black flags at various places besides wearing black bands.

At a number of Bar Associations in the Punjab, resolutions were carried against the proposed amendment which the community considers a measure aimed at curbing the professional independence of lawyers under constant fear of punishment.

The community assessed the proposed amendment more as a politically designed move to suppress the voice of lawyers against government policies than a sincere effort to promote discipline.

Meanwhile, senior lawyers of the city have vowed to continue resistance against the proposed amendment. The amendment is an ill-advised peace of legislation put forward by the ministers and legal advisers, according to Pakistan Bar Council members Muhammad Kazim Khan, Raja Mahmood Akhtar, Shahid Mahmood Bhatti and Muhammad Ahsan Bhon, SCBA vice-president SCBA Ali Ahmad Kurd and Lahore Bar Association president Mirza Hanif Baig.

They rejected the system framed by the Musharraf government as contrary to the ideas and thoughts of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as well as the Constitution of 1973.

They blamed the government for creating a split in the legal community through a well-thought conspiracy and termed the proposed amendment a part of that design. They expressed their resolve not to let the House carry the amendment. -PPI