ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday deferred the misconduct proceedings against 21 lawyers for storming the judicial compound on Feb 8.
A three-member larger bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Lubna Saleem Pervez heard IHC Registrar’s complaint.
During the hearing, IHC Chief Justice remarked: “It is trial of the entire system.” He added that the protesting lawyers were brought to the high court after making speeches. Justice Athar said, “The court has trust over the Bar but some lawyers are black spot for the whole legal community.” He stated that the high court remained hostage for the full day on that tragic day.
He remarked, “The Feb 8 incident was unpardonable and unexpected.” The IHC CJ said they would see who is lying after receiving their statements on oath. He continued that the scrutiny committee has nominated 21 legal practitioners from total 150 lawyers after investigation.
The bench directed the Registrar Islamabad High Court to issue the copy of the decision to the parties and adjourned further hearing of the case till March 29.
Previously, the bench had suspended the licenses of 21 lawyers in misconduct proceedings against them for storming the judicial compound on February 8. In its order, the court had observed that they are, prima-facie, of the opinion that the twenty one respondents arrayed in the complaint in hand had committed grave acts of indiscipline and misconduct on the 8th of February, 2021.
It added, “In exercise of powers conferred under section 54(1) of the Act of 1973, pending further proceedings, we hereby order suspension of the licenses of the twenty one respondents i.e. Naseer Ahmed Kayani, Tasadduq Hanif, Hammad Saeed Dar, Khalid Mehmood Khan, Ahsan Majeed Gujjar, Akhtar Hussain, Shaista Tabassum, Asad Khan, Faiser Jadoon, Hafiz Malik Mazhar Javed, Khalid Taj, Naveed Hayat Malik, NaziaAbbasi, Nusrat Parveen, Raja Amjad, Raja Khurram Farrukh, Zahid Mehmood Raja, Younas Kayani, Muhammad Umar, Moin Bazai, Pir Fida.”
“They are given an opportunity to satisfy this Court why complaints may not be referred to the respective regulatory authorities i.e. the Pakistan Bar Council and Islamabad Bar Council, as the case may be, for taking disciplinary proceedings,” maintained the IHC bench.
The court observed that at this stage, twenty one respondents arrayed in the proceedings in hand have been short-listed after careful scrutiny out of 150 enrolled lawyers alleged to have been involved in the grave act of storming the High Court and/or making it dysfunctional for more than four hours.
It also said the twenty one arrayed respondents, prima-facie, had a leading role in the grave acts described above. “Before we proceed to send their complaints to the respective regulatory bodies, we are affording them another opportunity to satisfy this Court that they had not actively acted, aided or facilitated the grave acts of 8th of February, 2021,” said the IHC Chief Justice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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