Bench and bar: PBC to boycott full court reference, CJP dinner

PBC Vice-Chairman said a relation of mutual respect should be maintained between the bar and the bench

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has announced that it will boycott the full court reference and the dinner to be hosted in honour of the newly appointed chief justice of Pakistan (CJP). The PBC also announced that the bar would not host any dinner in his honour.

PBC Vice-Chairman Azam Nazir Tarar said a relation of mutual respect should be maintained between the bar and the bench. “But, unfortunately, the CJP violated it while dealing with the senior most leadership of the lawyers’ fraternity.”

He said the requests by Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Fazal Haq Abbasi, Latif Afridi and Shafqat Mehmood Abbasi were rejected, adding that the bar reserved the right to a peaceful protest against it.

Tarar said the PBC had reviewed the issue of Barrister Ali Zafar in its meeting a day earlier. They praised him for making arguments in court for six straight hours. “It was the first time that a lawyer was fighting for the rights of lawyers.”

He said a requisition signed by 150 lawyers was being submitted in the Lahore High Court. Other bar associations are also reviewing this inappropriate behaviour, he added. “Any decision regarding Zafar will be taken after the verdict.”

Meanwhile, Abbasi said he had convened a meeting of the executive committee of the SCBA on September 8 to make a decision on the matter of attending the dinner or the full court reference.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2015.