LAHORE, March 28: Punjab Bar Council vice-chairman Muhammad Arif Chaudhry on Saturday withdrew a PBC decision to boycott the Supreme Court judges for their acceptance of a three-year extension in their retirement age under the LFO.

Talking to newsmen, he blasted LHCBA president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari for “having adopted frivolous resolutions to boycott the judges and resist the LFO.”

He also refused to abide by the LHCBA resolution regarding the cancellation of the bar membership of Senator Dr Khalid Ranjha and provincial adviser Rana Ejaz Ahmad Khan for supporting the LFO.

All lawyers’ associations, including the PBC, in a joint meeting held last month, had unanimously adopted a resolution to disregard chief justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad and Justice Qazi Farooq of the Supreme Court as superior court judges for having “retired” earlier this year. These associations had also resolved that their members would not plead their cases before the two judges and had given a call for their social boycott.

“Though we still believe that both the three-year extension and LFO are extra-constitutional and support the resolutions to this extent, the LHCBA president dealt with these two issues through mere press statements and these resolutions do not carry any legitimacy,” he alleged.

Arif Chaudhry announced that PBC members would appear before the superior court judges since the lawyers were being paid for pleading the cases of their clients and they could not afford a boycott at the expense of their earning sources. He added that PBC still recognised both Dr Ranjha and Rana Ejaz as the LHCBA members since the resolution on cancellation of their respective membership stood void.