PBC, SCBA fight intensifies

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to suspend the Pakistan Bar Council’s (PBC) order on the de-seating of Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) secretary and additional secretary on account of ‘misconduct’.

The court, maintaining status quo on the SCBA’s petition against the PBC order, adjourned the hearing till May 9.

A division bench of the apex court led by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard the SCBA petition.

A day earlier, SCBA President Abid Zuberi and Secretary Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir had filed a petition in the top court, pleading against the show-cause notices issued by the PBC to the association’s two officials.

The association requested that the top court should declare the show-cause notices null and void.

“As we have been informed that the order of de-seating has already been passed by the PBC with regard to the offices of the petitioners No 2 [SCBA Secretary Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir] and 3 [SCBA Additional Secretary Malik Shakeel-ur-Rehman], therefore at this stage a mandatory form of injunction cannot be granted without notice to the other side,” read the court order.

“However, subject to satisfying the maintainability of this constitution petition, let notice be issued to the respondents [PBC Islamabad secretary] as well as the Attorney General for Pakistan for 09.05.2023 at 1:00 p.m. Meanwhile, status quo is to be maintained,” it added.

A day earlier, differences between the PBC and the SCBA intensified as the former removed the latter’s secretary Shabbir and additional secretary Shakeel-ur-Rehman from their posts on allegations of misconduct.

The PBC gave the additional charge of the SCBA secretary to the association’s Finance Secretary Hifza Bokhari. Hifza then called a meeting and removed SCBA president Abid Zuberi with a majority vote.

The PBC accused the secretary and additional secretary of violating the Legal Practitioner and Bar Council Act, adding that they had not appeared before the Executive Committee of the council.

Zuberi and Shabbir challenged the decisions of the PBC in the court. However, the plea for an injunction was rejected and the case was adjourned till May 9.

Read After wedge among judges, SCBA also split

In a retaliatory move, the SCBA secretary suspended the membership of seven members of the PBC, namely Executive Committee Chairman Hasan Raza Pasha, Amjad Shah, Riazat Ali Sahar, Tariq Afridi, Masood Chishti, Ahsan Bhoon, and Qalbe Hasan Shah.

The SCBA has banned the members of the Executive Committee of the PBC from entering the bar rooms of the Supreme Court.

Later, addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Zuberi lamented “political interference” in their matters and declared the bar association’s independence from the PBC.

He said the SCBA elections were held annually, and they won those the last time around. However, he claimed that the PBC was continuously interfering in their affairs as it was trying to intervene in the cases of political parties.

“The real issue is the lawyers’ housing society; a land provider was given an excess of Rs2 billion by Ahsan Bhoon; human trafficking of 30 to 32 people was carried out on the letter of the Supreme Court Bar,” he alleged.

He further claimed that visa seekers turned out to be fake lawyers after checking with the Austrian embassy and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). He said that the rules and regulations of the SCBA were clear.

“The SCBA was pressured to go by what the government said; we made it clear that we stand by the rule of law,” he added. He also expressed his gratefulness to Justice Qazi Faez Isa for starting the enrollment process. “The SCBA is in no way under the PBC,” he claimed.