LAHORE: Hamid Khan-led Professional Group and Independent Group, also known as the late Asma Jahangir group, have come up with conflicting stances on the Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) decision to file a petition in the Supreme Court challenging lifetime disqualification of a public office holder.

Speaking at a press conference, Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) President Maqsood Buttar said the SCBA was an independent body of lawyers and filing such a petition was in violation of its mandate. Lahore Bar Association (LBA) President Rao Sami and two former presidents of the LHCBA affiliated to the group also joined Buttar at the conference.

Buttar said filing the petition in the apex court amounted to making the bar a B-team of political parties. He said the bar associations had a basic mandate and objective of striving for the supremacy of the Constitution and rule of law in the country. He said the bars had never been subordinate to any political party but always independently led democratic movements in the country.

He alleged that the petition against the rulings of the SC had been filed for the personal and vested interests of the SCBA leaders.

The LHCBA president also condemned a recent statement of Pakistan Bar Council vice chairman Hafeezur Rehman Chaudhry, who belongs to Independent group, about the proposed elevation of the Sindh High Court chief justice.

Later, LHCBA secretary Khwaja Mohsin Abbas, who belongs to Independent group, also held a briefing in support of the SCBA petition in the SC. He was joined by LHCBA finance secretary Faisal Tauqir Sial, LBA senior vice president Khurram Mir and other elected representatives of the bar.

Mr Abbas said the SCBA had every right to file the petition against the lifetime disqualification of political leaders. He said the petition in question was in fact for the protection of fundamental rights of every citizen.

He said a killer or any other convict could contest election five years after completion of sentence but the disqualification of the politicians for life usurped the fundamental rights of citizens.

He said 76 citizens of the country would be benefited if their fundamental rights were restored through the petition filed by the SCBA.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022