IHC suspends licence of former bar president, extends suspension of 23 lawyers in misconduct proceedings

ISLAMABAD – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday suspended the license of former bar president Riasat Ali Azad and extended the suspension of 23 lawyers in the misconduct proceedings against the lawyers for storming the judicial compound on February 8. 

A three-member larger bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Ms. Lubna Saleem Pervez conducted hearing of the complaint filed by the IHC Registrar wherein it had already suspended the licenses of 23 lawyers. 

The bench also refused the apology of President Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) Kaif Fareed Advocate and directed him to submit the list of the names of lawyers involved in storming the judicial compound to resolve this issue. 

During the hearing, Mushtaq Chaudhary Advocate on behalf of a lawyer Pir Fida appeared before the court and told the court that they had been not given the copy of the complaint in this matter. He added that in this situation, they could not submit their reply. 

At this, the IHC Chief Justice asked him to submit an affidavit stating that he was not involved in attacking the high court building. Then, the bar president expressed his abashment over the incident and tendered unconditional apology. He also termed the incident as an accidental happening. 

However, the bench asked him not to term it as an accidental incident. The IHC Chief Justice asked, “Do you want to protect the people involved in attacking the high court?”  Justice Athar again directed him to produce the list of the names of the lawyers involved in attacking the judicial compound so that action could be taken against the lawyers who were involved in it.  

Another senior lawyer Shoaib Shaheen Advocate said that media alleged the lawyers for “Vuklagardi.” Justice Athar said that do not allege the media because media played positive role in this matter. 

Later, the court also suspended the license of Riasat Ali Azad by refusing to restore the licenses of 23 lawyers whose licenses had already been suspended by the bench and deferred the proceedings for indefinite period. 

In this regard, the bench had already 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,” maintained the IHC bench.

Article source: https://nation.com.pk/05-May-2021/ihc-suspends-licence-of-former-bar-president-extends-suspension-of-23-lawyers-in-misconduct-proceedings