LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended the conviction of a member of the Punjab Bar Council (PBC), Rana Muhammad Asif, on a contempt of court charges and directed police to release him immediately.

The bench heard the lawyer’s appeal and suspended the sentence, directing the registrar to convey the order to the jail authorities and the CCPO Lahore for his release.

The bench would resume further hearing on the appeal after Eidul Fitr. Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan in December last had awarded a three-month jail term to Rana Asif for misconduct after he was asked to wear his black gown, an essential part of the uniform for judges and lawyers during winter.

Justice Shahzad Khan had issued arrest warrants of the lawyer observing that the contemnor fled away from the courtroom before the announcement of the order. The judge had also suspended the practicing license of the lawyer for six months. The bar observed strikes for many weeks and staged a sit-in outside the judges’ entrance gate of the LHC for over a week.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Thursday convened an emergency meeting of its general house after police arrested the convicted lawyer and shifted to jail.

The house demanded LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti to take notice of the lawyer’s arrest and hear his appeal against the sentence pending for months. The chief justice accordingly constituted a bench comprising himself and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023