LAHORE – A group of female lawyers has knocked the door of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to seek justice against their abuse and harassment by six members of the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC), including Executive Committee Chairman Rana Muhammad Asif Saeed.
The female lawyers came to the PbBC on July 7 for attending the hearing against a lawyer Rana Altaf, who had brutally tortured their colleague Humera Bashir.
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Vice President Imrana Perveen Baloch filed a petition in the LHC to challenge the PbBC order suspending the licences of three female lawyers, including Humera Bashir and Shakeela Rana besides herself. LHC Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial will hear the petition as an urgent matter.
The petitioner said six members of the PbBC, including Executive Committee Chairman Rana Muhammad Asif Saeed, on July 7 illegally detained three women, including a complainant Humera Bashir, and used abusive language with them besides harassing them when they protested against unlawful restoration of license of a blue-eyed lawyer of the executive committee chairman.
Humera had filed a complaint against Rana Altaf accusing him of torturing her, following which the executive committee chairman issued notices for July 7 to hear the two parties besides suspending license of the accused lawyer.
However, when Humera came on July 7 along with other female lawyers, including Imrana Perveen Baloch, she was told by the executive committee chairman that Rana Altaf’s license was restored on July 3 because the complainant did not appear before the committee.
When the complainant party protested on July 7 against the illegal decision of the executive committee chairman, six members of the PbBC not only detained them and their accomplices but also misbehaved with them.
In order to teach a lesson to the protestors, PbBC Executive Committee Chairman Rana Asif Saeed suspended the licences of Imrana Perveen Baloch, Shakeela Rana, Humera Bashir, Irhsad Begum, Afaaq Ahmad, Abdul Hameed, Hafiz Tariq and Shahid Nadim Shaukat. The petitioner said the PbBC could not suspend her license since she was practicing for the Supreme Court of Pakistan and only the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) was empowered to cancel her license.
Lawyers Rana Muhammad Asif Saeed, Changez Ahmed Khan Kakar, Awais Ahmad Qazi, Majeeb-ur-Rehman Kiani, Ghulam Mustafa Juni and Nawazish Ali Gujjar have been made party in the petition. The petitioner said the order dated July 7 was based on mala fide intentions because the executive committee chairman wanted to give cover to his illegal act of restoring the licence of his blue-eyed Rana Altaf.