Matters related to provinces, bar councils: No high court has jurisdiction to set aside orders: PBC

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has said no high court of any province have jurisdiction especially the Sindh High Court (SHC) to create hindrance in the affairs of the regulatory body of lawyers who has the mandate under Section 13(2) of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, to decide matters of provincial/Islamabad Bar Councils and all Bar associations of the country.

PBC Vice-Chairman Haroonur Rashid in a statement, issued on Monday, said, it is often observed that orders of Executive Committee of the PBC which are assailed by the aggrieved person(s) before the SHC through civil suit are being taken up by the high court in the court or in chamber and injunctive order has been passed which are not entertainable in the eye of law due to lack of jurisdiction.

The SHC has no jurisdiction to set aside any order assailed which is passed by the PBC or its Executive Committee at Islamabad.

He said the proper forum for that is the courts of Islamabad Capital Territory, so any order passed by the SHC would be non-existing and nullity in the eye of law.

Rashid said that the courts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab or Balochistan cannot sit over the territorial jurisdiction of PBC; therefore, the SHC should not pass injunctive orders on the matters decided by the PBC at Islamabad, just to please their blue-eyed person(s).

He said such orders amount to undue interference in the smooth functioning of a statutory body having its office in Islamabad. The tendency of such like issues creates serious doubts about the credibility of those decisions which have been passed without jurisdiction.

The PBC vice chief demanded the chief justice of Pakistan to look into the matter and take appropriate action in this regard.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023