RAWALPINDI, May 5: Lawyers attending a bar meeting here on Monday scuffled with each other when one of their colleagues expressed resentment over Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan’s decision to contest the coming by-election on PPP’s ticket.

The Rawalpindi Bar Association had held the meeting to welcome the Supreme Court Bar Association president who was to file nomination papers for the NA-55 (Rawalpindi-VI) seat. Senior lawyer Chaudhry Toufiq Asif tabled a resolution supporting the decision of Mr Ahsan and declaring the bar premises as the central election office for his campaign.

Although the meeting had adopted the resolution, lawyer Sajjad Akbar Abbasi objected to Mr Ahsan’s decision of contesting the by-poll from the PPP platform and urged him to contest as an independent candidate.

Blaming the PPP for the delay in reinstatement of the deposed judges, he said that after getting elected on a PPP ticket, Mr Ahsan would not be able to raise the voice of the legal fraternity in parliament.

His comments angered some pro-PPP lawyers who dragged him down from the dais and a scuffle broke out, mainly among young lawyers. Bar representatives and senior lawyers intervened to cool them down.

When Mr Ahsan started his speech, another brawl broke out between a lawyer and a cameraman of a private television channel. Media personnel walked out of the RBA hall in protest. They ended the half-an-hour boycott at the request of bar representatives.Mr Ahsan termed the incident an attempt to sabotage good relations between the lawyers’ community and the media.

He said he had never supported the boycott decision and through an open letter on Dec 5 last year made it clear that if major political parties, like the PPP and PML-N, took part in the elections lawyers should not keep themselves out of the process. Later, Mr Ahsan went in a procession to the court of Khalid Mehmood Ranjha, the returning officer for NA-55, to file his nomination papers. Talking to reporters after filling the papers, Mr Ahsan expressed the hope that he would get the PPP ticket.

Meanwhile, Capt (retd) Safdar Mehmood, son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif, Sardar Naseer Ahmed and Ghulam Rasool Malik submitted their papers for the NA-52 (Rawalpindi-III) seat. The seat was vacated by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Others who filed the papers for the NA-55 seat are: Sardar Mehr Tariq, Abdul Fida Paracha, Sardar Naseer Ahmed, Mohammad Akmal, Naseer Ali, Gulzar Awan, Ijaz Khan Jazzi, Ikramul Haq, Raja Tahir Husain, Begum Naeem Ali, Tariq Mehboob Kiani and Syed Zafar Ali Shah.

Major (retd) Mohammad Ramzan, Chaudhry Masood Akhtar, Sardar Naseem Ahmed, Barrister Wajihudin Ali Khan and Razzaq A. Mirza filed nomination papers for PP-10 seat.