Executive committee of Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), in a meeting on Sunday with Muhammad Yaseen Azad in the chair, expressed its concern that it has come to its knowledge that certain elements in different Bar associations are collecting funds from traders and politicians in the name of the lawyers movement which is causing bad name for the Bar as a whole.
The Committee observed that no member of Bar Associations shall indulge in such activities which may lead to corruption by undesirable elements in the legal profession thus lowering down the image of the Bar in the eyes of general public.
The committee directed the Executive Committee of the Punjab Bar Council to hold first ever election of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) within a period of two months through an election board to be nominated by it.
The election shall be held strictly on the basis of lists of voters/members supplied by the Petitioners and Mr Nayab Hassan Gardezi, President of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association. The committee also heard complaint against Mahmood Ashraf Khan and Rana Muhammad Naveed, suspended President and Secretary-General, respectively of High Court Bar Association, Multan for embezzlement of funds of the Bar. The Committee after hearing the above-cited complaint observed that serious irregularities, embezzlement and fraud have been committed by Mr Mahmood Ashraf Khan and Rana Muhammad Naveed in accounts of the said Bar Association.
It was suggested by the executive committee of the PBC that appropriate measures may be ordered to proceed against the then President and General Secretary of High Court Bar Association, Multan, and for accomplishment of the task, a committee may be allowed to be constituted to unearth the calculated fraud and misappropriation etc.