LAHORE, Aug 17: The Punjab Bar Council has deferred for a day its Wednesday's protest rally against moves to confer on the superior judiciary the powers to take action against lawyers for professional misconduct.

PBC vice-chairman Tanvirur Rehman Randhawa and executive committee chairman Pir Masood Chishti said at a news conference here on Tuesday the date was altered to avoid a conflict with the Pakistan Bar Council-sponsored black day which was being observed against Shaukat Aziz's participation in the Attock and Tharparker by-election on Wednesday.

The PBC leaders condemned the government-sponsored move to amendment the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, saying it was aimed at curbing the independence of lawyers and their elected councils.

The legal community, they said, was highly enraged over the move because they felt that the amendment would harm the bench-bar relations, damage the unity of the lawyers and dealt a serious blow to the independence of judiciary.

Mr Randhawa and Mr Chishti said the PBC would work out its future strategy at a meeting after the rally which would be attended by office bearers of 114 bar associations of the province down to the tehsil level.

The council was thinking of a march on the National Assembly if the government failed to withdraw its move which, they said, was malicious. They said the next plan might be a complete and indefinite strike and boycott of courts which the Pakistan Bar Council was also considering.

They said the "mischievous" amendment was an afterthought as it was not a part of the original amendment as was presented to the Senate on the basis of the recommendations as worked out by the Pakistan Bar Council.