SC finds support at High Court Bar

SCBA’s condemnation of the Supreme Court is challenged.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Thursday put its weight behind the Supreme Court (SC) and its decisions in what seemed to be a direct response to the Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA’s) statement condemning SC judgments.

Addressing the general house meeting yesterday, LHCBA president Asghar Ali Gill said, “We will forcefully confront all the elements that try to pull stunts against the serving judges.”

On March 29 SCBA president Asma Jahangir had said that the judiciary under the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is heading towards judicial dictatorship. This, she said, was reflected in the SC’s order for the removal of the National Accountability Bureau’s chairman and the ‘dubious’ working of the Judicial Commission with regard to judges’ extension in service.

Gill said, “I am the elected representative of 19,000 members of the LHCBA. It is my duty to halt anti-judiciary forces at work.”

The SC under the CJP, he said, was performing its functions and giving out judgments on all cases according to the principles of law and justice. The criticism was unfounded and baseless, he added.

“We believe in the SC and its judgments and endorse them as the best. The lawyers of the country, especially those belonging to the Punjab, will repulse any attack against the SC,” he said.

The house also voted to reduce life membership fee from Rs8,000 to Rs5,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 01^st, 2011.