ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Bar Council (IBC), the regulator of lawyers practising in the federal capital, has distanced itself from a thanksgiving ceremony being held on Tuesday (today) in connection with the construction of the Lawyers Complex at which Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed has been invited as chief guest.

The outgoing body of the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) a few days before end of its term organised the thanksgiving ceremony for commencement of construction work of Lawyers Complex and invited CJP Gulzar to grace the event.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had inaugurated construction of the Judicial Complex on Sept 7.

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah and other judges of the high court participated in the inaugural ceremony.

Believes IBA has organised function to gain political mileage

The IBA organised the thanksgiving ceremony and the Supreme Court’s registrar office informed it on Monday that the CJP has accepted the invitation and will grace the event at 3pm on Tuesday. The IBC convened an emergent session attended by Zulfiqar Ali Abbasi, vice chairman, Syed Qamar Hussain Shah Sabzwari, Raja M. Aleem Khan Abbasi and Adil Aziz Qazi.

According to a statement issued by the IBC, the Bar Council “discussed the unilateral holding of a function by the Cabinet of the Islamabad Bar Association, with regard to the so-called construction of Islamabad Lawyers’ Complex”.

The Islamabad Bar Council pointed out that “the function organised by the Cabinet of the Islamabad Bar Association is to gain political mileage on the ruse of the construction of Lawyers’ Chambers and the Islamabad Bar Council being the apex representative organisation of the respected lawyers community of Islamabad cannot be a part of any such ploy to hoodwink the respected lawyers community of Islamabad and disassociates itself from the aforesaid deceptive stunt”.

The activity is impermissible, particularly in view of the fact that no such proposal for holding of such a function was ever discussed in the general house of the Islamabad Bar Association, the council said.

It added that as per a briefing given to the Islamabad Bar Council by the Capital Development Authority, there is no provision of a lawyers’ chambers in the Lawyers/Litigation Facilitation Centre sought to be constructed by the government.

“The holding of function by the outgoing cabinet of the Islamabad Bar Association on the verge of expiry of their tenure, that too in the name of construction of the Lawyers’ Chambers, is an attempt to create false hope amongst the respected lawyers community of Islamabad, which is not allowed. The order dated 30/12/2021, passed by the honourable Islamabad High Court, in writ petition No. 1884 of 2019 is quite clear with regard to the current scenario.”

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2022