Cooperatives societies building handed over to Lahore High Court , LBA claims

The association had threatened on Oct 2 to occupy the edifice

LAHORE: Lahore Bar Association (LBA) claimed on Saturday that the Punjab Cooperatives Societies building had been handed over to Lahore High Court (LHC) to house select courts.

LBA vice president Muhammad Jahangir Bhatti told The Express Tribune that the building had been handed over to LHC on October 8. He said select courts currently located across the city would be housed in the building. Bhatti said lawyers had been striving for this for years.

He said their efforts had finally paid off. Bhatti praised the efforts of Chief Justice Manzoor A Malik, LHC Registrar Tariq Ahmed, District and Sessions Judge Bahadar Ali Khan and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Law Ashtar Ausaf Ali on this account.

The LBA had threatened on October 2 to forcibly occupy the building if the edifice was not handed over to LHC by October 8. LBA president Chaudhry Ishtiaq had told newsmen that some bureaucrats had been obstructing efforts to house the courts in one building.

Ishtiaq had claimed that the government had initially promised to hand over the building to LHC by September 30. He had alleged that the government had later reneged on the pledge at the behest of certain bureaucrats.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2015.