LAHORE, June 6: The Lahore Bar Association’s invitation to President Gen Pervez Musharraf for a dinner has elicited a mixed response among bar representatives as the Lahore High Court Bar Association gave a strike call for Saturday (today) against the invitation while the Punjab Bar Council refused to participate in the strike.

LHCBA president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari alleged at a press conference that the government had got this dinner arranged in order to foil the direct action of the legal fraternity against the superior courts judge enjoying extended tenures under the Legal Framework Order (LFO). “They did not have the courage to arrange the gathering on the LBA premises, which exposes the cowardice of government in countering the anti-LFO stance,” he claimed, adding that the LHCBA could gather 10,000 lawyers to ruin the gathering, but it believed in the rule of law and peace.

Mr Ansari maintained that the only effective way of countering the LBA step was to condemn it and boycott the courts and express unity of lawyers over the LFO issue. He alleged that an “officially-patronized” faction of lawyers had become active for holding the dinner in honour of the president. “Provincial advisor Rana Ejaz Ahmad, whose LHCBA membership has already been cancelled, is playing a pivotal role in arranging the gathering to earn appreciation from Gen Musharraf,” the LHCBA president alleged.

He mentioned that the PBC vice-chairman had earlier arranged a similar gathering in honour of the provincial chief minister, but a majority of PBC members boycotted it. “The LBA’s dinner is going to meet a similar fate.” He accused the LBA president of making the invitation offer without even consulting the association’s executive body and the general house.

On the contrary, PBC vice-chairman Mohammad Arif Chaudhry announced that his body would stay way from Saturday’s strike. “Being a regulatory body for all the provincial bar associations, only the PBC can give the strike call,” he claimed, adding that the PBC did not want to interfere in LBA’s affairs. He maintained that there was no harm in inviting the president on the part of LBA for securing development funds.

He reiterated his stance that inviting government officials to bar gatherings had nothing to do with the anti-LFO campaign since securing funds for the uplift of bar councils’ structure was more important than anything else. When asked whether he would attend the gathering, he replied in the negative saying that no such invitation had been sent to him.

While responding to the LHCBA’s initiative for cancelling his membership, Mr Chaudhry accused the LHCBA president of getting personal with him over “petty” issues. He alleged that Hafiz Ansari was damaging the anti-LFO stance of lawyers by getting hostile against him. He warned that if the LHCBA did not change its current attitude towards the PBC, lawyers’ interests would suffer an irreparable loss. “I request the Joint Action Committee of lawyers to take notice of Mr Ansari’s deplorable statements against me since I have great respect for him and have never used such an abusive language against him.”

LBA office-bearers: The Lahore Bar Association was divided on its president’s invitation to President Gen Pervez Musharraf to attend a bar gathering on June 8, as three of its main office-bearers announced boycott of the ceremony.

LBA’s Vice-President Afzal Hayat Sandhu, Secretary-General Agha Faisal and Joint Secretary Usman Subhani announced at a press conference on Friday night that president Mansoorur Rahman Khan Afridi had arranged the gathering without getting approval of the general house. “The matter was not even placed before the LBA’s executive body, and the president finalized things on his own,” they alleged.

They claimed that three resolutions were tabled by the LBA members against the invitation, but the president turned a deaf ear to their voice. The dissident officer-bearers claimed that the general house meeting had been summoned for Saturday (today) to take up the three resolutions against the invitation to the president.

Lahore High Court Bar Association President Hafiz Abdul Rahman Ansari and Punjab Bar Council former vice-chairman Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry hailed the decision of the three office-bearers. They urged the LBA members to observe a complete strike on Saturday and move a no-confidence resolution against their president for allegedly acting against the cause of lawyers.

While talking to Dawn, the LBA president claimed that the invitation had been issued with the consent of the general house, but now some office-bearers had deviated from their support for the invitation under the pressure of the LHCBA.

He also claimed that no such meeting of the general house had been convened for Saturday. “Every thing has been finalized and we shall hold the ceremony according to the schedule,” he said.