ISLAMABAD-The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday suspended the licenses of 21 lawyers in misconduct proceedings against them 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 and suspended the licenses of 21 lawyers. 

In its order, the court observed that they are, prima-facie, of the opinion that the 21 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 21 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, and 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. 

The court observed that at this stage, 21 respondents arrayed in the proceedings in hand have been shortlisted after careful scrutiny out of 150 enrolled lawyers alleged to have been involved in the grave act of storming the High Court and/or making it dysfunctional for more than four hours. 

It also said that the 21 arrayed respondents, prima-facie, had a leading role in the grave acts described above. “Before we proceed to send their complaints to the respective regulatory bodies, we are affording them another opportunity to satisfy this Court that they had not actively acted, aided or facilitated the grave acts of 8th of February, 2021,” said the IHC Chief Justice. 

Justice Athar stated that they also expect members of the Islamabad Bar Association and the Islamabad High Court Bar Association, who had witnessed the intolerable acts of grave indiscipline and misconduct, to come forward and identify any of the arrayed respondents who may not have been involved in the storming of the High Court and forcing it to remain dysfunctional from 10:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on 8th of February, 2021. 

The IHC Chief Justice remarked that there could not have been a more grave act of indiscipline and misconduct on the part of enrolled Advocates than the incident of the 8th of February, 2021. There was no outsider involved in the storming of the Islamabad High Court and the vandalising of public property. 

“All those who were involved were enrolled Advocates and known to the members of the respective Bars, particularly its office holders. The office bearers, particularly the Presidents of the Islamabad District Bar Association and Islamabad High Court Bar Association respectively, were also present and even they were as helpless as the detained Chief Justice and the Judges of this Court. 

There were a few conscientious enrolled Advocates who pleaded sanity but their pleadings fell on deaf ears,” mentioned the IHC bench.  Later, it deferred the hearing March 11 for further proceedings.