ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday directed the lawyers allegedly involved in storming the judicial compound on February 8, to submit their replies.
A three-member larger bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb conducted hearing of the complaint filed by the IHC Registrar for the misconduct proceedings against the lawyers for storming the judicial compound on February 8. In this matter, the bench had already suspended the licenses of 23 lawyers. During the hearing, Shoaib Shaheen Advocate representing the suspended lawyers stated that the licenses of his clients had been suspended for more than 90 days and suspension of license for more than 90 days is against the law. At this, Justice Athar asked from him that whether all the involved lawyers have submitted their replies in this regard. Shaheen said that some lawyers have submitted the responses while some lawyers have not submitted the replies yet. The lawyers also tendered unconditional apology, however, the bench refused to accept it and deferred the hearing for indefinite period.
In this connection, the bench had already suspended the licenses of 23 lawyers in misconduct proceedings against them for storming the judicial compound on February 8.
In its order, the court had 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.