A group of lawyers led by vice president of High Court Bar Association (HCBA) have not considered inviting PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz to address the bar during her scheduled visit to Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto on Dec 27 and requested Sindh High Court registrar to cancel the invitation “to avoid complications”.

HCBA vice president Mazhar Ali Mangan and senior advocate Qadir Bakhsh Bhatti conveyed in a press conference at local press club on Thursday that the bar’s general secretary Ashfaque Abro had extended the invitation without taking into confidence general body.

The invitation to Maryam Nawaz to address the bar was against by-laws and rules, hence it should be withdrawn or cancelled, they claimed.

They said that PML-N leadership was propagating an anti-state narrative which is against law enforcement agencies. Maryam Nawaz’s coming to the bar might lead to an unforeseen situation, they alarmed.

They rejected the general secretary’s statement that the invitation bore signatures of 400 lawyers and said that many among the signatories were law students and not even enrolled as members of the bar.

Showing a copy of application addressed to the bar president bearing signatures of vice president, joint secretary, library secretary and members of managing committee, they said that it had been conveyed to the president that sending the invitation to Maryam Nawaz to address the bar was against by-laws and rules. Therefore, it should be withdrawn.

Advocate Qadir Bakhsh Bhatti said in a letter to the registrar of SHC dated Dec 23 that the signatures on the requisition for invitation were “managed”. Besides, the matter was not put up before the bar members. The registrar was, therefore, requested to personally look into the matter and cancel the invitation in order to avoid any complications, he said.

Furthermore, the general secretary had invited Maryam Nawaz in a letter on Dec 18 to address the bar at her convenience as she was scheduled to visit Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto to attend slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary on Dec 27. A bar member, Nisar Ahmed G. Abro, had moved the orders.

Ashfaque Abro, the general secretary, told sources that he had issued the invitation letter only after the bar president had sent him a copy of the requisition duly moved by Nisar Abro.

Everything was done in reference with by-laws of the association and the requisition bore 400 signatures of lawyers, he remarked. Once Maryam Nawaz accepted the invitation the lawyer who had moved the requisition would inform the association and only then arrangements would be made for her address, he further said. “However, we have not yet received any reply,” he added.