Lawyers angry over withdrawal of resolution against CJ

Staff Report

LAHORE: Lawyers at the General House Meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Monday expressed resentment when LHCBA President Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari announced the withdrawal of a resolution moved to condemn the LHC chief justice.

A meeting of the LHCBA on Friday had proposed the resolution to boycott proceedings in the court of LHC Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry to condemn the misconduct of court clerks with lawyers.

Court clerks on Saturday appeared in the LHC lawns dressed in plain clothes and verbally abused lawyers. This caused tensions to flare up between the LHC administration and lawyers.

However, Mr Ansari appeared in the over-crowded Kiani Hall of the LHCBA and said the bar and the bench “were two wheels of the same vehicle”. He informed the lawyers about developments on the issue and said the chief justice had spoken to the bar’s representatives on Saturday evening. The LHCBA president said the chief justice showed a willingness to resolve the matter amicably and hence there was no need to move a resolution against him.

His announcement was met with a loud uproar in the hall and lawyers insisted that the bar representatives stay to give them a chance to speak their mind. However, the microphones were switched off and the bar representatives left the room.

Lawyers said they had been humiliated by the clerks and demanded the formation of an independent commission to probe the matter and find out who “coaxed” the clerks to act as they did. They also expressed anger at the behaviour of the bar representatives and said they shouldn’t have met the chief justice without taking lawyers into confidence.

Lawyers demanded a first information report be lodged against the people who beat up lawyers and put them in illegal confinement over the petty issue.

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