Provincial council reverses lawyer’s suspension

Advocate was suspended for two days for representing murder accused.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Bar Council has decided to reverse the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) executive’s decision to suspend a senior lawyer’s membership for two days.

Bar sources said the LBA had suspended Burhan Moazzam Malik, who is also a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, for two days on July 19 for representing a man accused of murdering an LBA member’s father and two brothers.

LBA Vice President Azfar Kharal and Finance Secretary Azmat Nazeer Hashmi, among others, expressed shock over Malik’s suspension, saying that LBA President Shehzad Hassan Shaikh and General Secretary Farhad Ali Shah had not consulted them. “They suspended him to embarrass the Hamid Khan group” Kharal told The Express Tribune.

He said lawyers had always appeared in such cases and cited several examples. He said he did not know when the LBA had decided to act against lawyers in such cases. He also suggested that some were jealous of Moazzam because of his success.

The LBA president said he had “requested” all lawyers not to appear in cases involving the family of a colleague. He said he had not known earlier that Malik was representing those accused of killing two brothers and the father of Advocate Mohsin Ashraf.

He said similar action had previously been taken against Advocates RA Awan and Azar Latif Khan. He denied nursing a grudge against Malik or trying to embarrass the Hamid Khan Group. He also said Kharal had been present when the relevant resolution was moved, though Kharal denied it.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2011.