Misleading court: SC suspends licence of PTI’s main counsel

Awaiz filed a plea in LHC without mentioning that top court had dismissed his plea

ISLAMABAD: The apex court on Friday suspended the practicing licence of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leading lawyer Ahmed Awais and also issued him a contempt notice for misleading the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The Supreme Court’s three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, was hearing an appeal filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The bench observed that the PTI counsel Ahmed Awais filed a petition in the LHC, after the apex court dismissed the appeal of one of his clients, Baqir Hussain, but did not mention about the dismissal.



Baqir Hussain was an employee of Ministry of Commerce and joined NAB on deputation. During his tenure, he was allegedly involved in corruption and misused authority. The NAB then proceeded against him but he returned the money and the case was settled.

He later rejoined commerce  ministry but his promotion was halted after NAB, on the ministry’s query, informed it about the case. Baqir later approached the apex court against NAB court’s verdict but SC dismissed his appeal.

Awais Ahmed, who had represented Baqir in the SC, then filed an application in LHC against NAB without mentioning that his appeal had been dismissed by the apex court.

SCBA seeks external audit

The Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) executive body has decided to conduct external audit of expenditure, which were made by their predecessors on furnishing Lawyers Judicial Complex in the last month of their tenure.

One of the SCBA’s executive member told The Express Tribune that the newly elected body of the SCBA had expressed concern over millions of rupees in expenditure by the outgoing body.

“The new body has also taken notice of the hiring of around two dozen employees for Lawyers Judicial Complex in Islamabad and has decided to remove them because all these appointments were made illegally and unnecessarily,” he said, adding that no advertisements were published for hiring these employees.

He said the new body will also request Chairman Construction Committee – the incumbent Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk – to take notice of millions of rupees expenditure incurred on furnishing and renovating the judicial complex. “Around Rs600 million has been spent on the complex in last three years,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.