ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), on Monday, directed the lawyers allegedly involved in storming the judicial compound on February 8, to submit their replies.
A three-member larger bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Aamer Farooq, and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, heard the complaint filed by the IHC registrar for the misconduct proceedings against the lawyers for storming the judicial compound.
In this matter, the bench had already suspended the licenses of 23 lawyers.
During the hearing, Shoaib Shaheen advocate representing the suspended lawyers, stated that the licenses of his clients had been suspended for more than 90 days, and suspension of license for more than 90 days is against the law.
At this, Justice Minallah asked him whether all the involved lawyers have submitted replies.
Shaheen replied that some lawyers have submitted the responses, while some lawyers have not.
The lawyers also tendered unconditional apology; however, the bench refused to accept it, and deferred the hearing for an indefinite period.
The IHC had suspended the licenses of 23 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,” the IHC bench maintained.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021