KARACHI, April 11: Advocate Wasim Sajjad, who represents the referring authority in the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, was not allowed to sit in the bar room of the SHC on Wednesday.

Mr Sajjad had come to the court to defend the Privatisation Commission in a suit instituted by Attock Oil. He came to the bar room during a tea break but was accosted by Sindh Bar Council member Salahuddin Gandapur and asked to leave. Some senior lawyers, including Syed Ikram Ansari and Hadi Zafar Shah, tried to intercede on Mr Sajjad’s behalf but he left without having his cup of tea.

Sindh High Court Bar Association secretary Munir-ur-Rehman later said that there was no bar on any lawyer to visit the bar room.

Supreme Court Bar Association vice-president Khwaja Naveed Ahmed criticised Mr Sajjad’s expulsion and said lawyers who come to pursue their briefs in the high court or any other court should not be denied entry into the bar room.—Staff Reporter