After electing first-ever vice chairman of Islamabad Bar Council (IBC), Muhammad Shoaib Shaheen, the IBC became operational. Islamabad lawyers on May 2, 2015 elected five IBC members for a five-year term and on Saturday IBC members Qazi Rafiuddin Babar, Haroon Rashid, Syed Wajid Ali Gillani and Faiz Jandran unanimously elected Shoaib Shaheen as first vice chairman of IBC for a period of one year.
After the establishment of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in 2011, lawyers had been demanding the establishment of a bar council for the Islamabad capital territory to handle matters relating to discipline and the issuance of practice licenses to local lawyers. Earlier, the Islamabad-based lawyers were dealt by the Punjab Bar Council with regard to such matters.
The IBC was established last year after the "Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act 1973" was amended and the IBC added to the list of the four provincial and the Pakistan bar councils. Last year, advocate general of Islamabad Mian Abdul Rauf by virtue of his designation became chairman of IBC.