KARACHI, Jan 19: The Sindh Bar Council has suspended the licences of four lawyers currently working with the provincial law department.

According to a circular issued by the SBC on Saturday, the licences of Advocates Zafar Ahmed Siddiqui, Nafees Ahmed Usmani, Qazi Mohammad Bashir and Abdul Samad were suspended by the vice chairman of the SBC.

Three of them are working as assistant advocate general and one as assistant prosecutor.

If the advocates in questions were still found appearing before any court of law, they were liable to be punished as warranted in Section 58(2) of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 1973, it added.

No reason was given in the circular for such a harsh action. However, a senior member of the SBC said that the four lawyers were found among those who had staged a rally on the premises of the city courts on Jan 16 and chanted slogans against the apex court and the Chief Justice of Pakistan in protest over the Supreme Court’s order in the rental power plants scam case. Thus, they had violated the said act, he added.

Meanwhile, a group of lawyers staged a rally and held a meeting on the premises of the city courts on Saturday to express solidarity with the CJP and the apex court.