LAHORE, Oct 26: The newly-elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Justice Tariq Mahmood (retired), has said the lawyers’ movement for a democratic rule and resolution of their problems are equally important for him.

“The movement is very important and will continue. But an immediate and serious problem has arisen from the recent Supreme Court order what is being termed as aimed at discouraging the adjournment tendency,” the SCBA president told Dawn on Sunday.

Tariq Mahmood who hails from Quetta, resigned from the post of a member of the Election Commission of Pakistan and ultimately as a judge of Balochistan High Court on the issue of the referendum.

Mr Mahmood said a major feature of the Supreme Court decision was that 100 cases’ two cause lists would be decided every day.

“This is bound to add to the lawyers’ difficulties, particularly those who come from Karachi, Quetta and other remote areas of the country, as they would not be in a position to know which of their cases were fixed for the next day.

“I do not see a rationale behind the decision that cases will be listed every day; this is a major deviation from the decades-old tradition; it seems that the decision has been taken only to punish us all,” he said.

“The order will have deep repercussions on the legal profession and should be resolved on top priority basis,” he said.

The outgoing SCBA president, Hamid Khan, told this correspondent that the election of Tariq Mahmood and other pro-democracy forces had again proved that lawyers vehemently opposed the present regime’s policies.