LAHORE - Executive Committee of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Wednesday suspended membership of its Vice President Rana Naeem Sarwar for organising a farewell dinner for the retired Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Bar’s Secretary Asif Mahmood Cheema had issued a show-cause notice to Vice President Sarwar for inviting the outgoing Chief Justice to a farewell dinner on behalf of the executive body.
The plea taken in the notice was that the Executive Committee of the bar with majority of the members had already decided not to hold any farewell dinner/lunch for the outgoing CJP due to ‘brutal’ torture on lawyers in Supreme Court Islamabad building.
The VP was asked to submit a written reply to the notice.
On Wednesday, the VP attended the meeting of the bar’s Executive Committee and defended his act of holding the dinner for CJP Chaudhry. Sarwar said he had arranged the dinner in his personal capacity, however, the Committee rejected the argument observing that the CJP was also given a souvenir on behalf of the SCBA.
The Committee suspended basic membership of Sarwar.
Resultantly he will be no more Vice President of the bar.
An appeal could be filed against the decision of the Committee before the Executive Committee of the Pakistan Bar Council.