PTI-Aligned Lawyer Calls for Movement; SCBA President Rejects Agita
PTI Senator and senior lawyer Hamid Khan on Monday announced plans for a lawyers’ movement from Punjab, beginning with a convention in Lahore on November 30, to oppose the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
However, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Mian Muhammad Rauf Atta rejected the call for agitation, affirming the SCBA’s support for the constitutional bench formed under the amendment.
Speaking at the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) auditorium, Hamid Khan, a former SCBA president, emphasized that the movement would focus on legal, not political, concerns. He claimed the legal fraternity opposed the amendment, which he argued would harm the judicial system.
Khan stated the campaign would launch at the all-Punjab lawyers’ representative convention hosted by the LHCBA on November 30. He further alleged interference and rigging in recent SCBA elections, accusing intelligence agencies of influencing the results. He claimed his group’s candidates for vice president positions—Khushal Khan from Sindh and Habib Qureshi from KP—were declared winners but lost in recounts.
“If they think we’ve gone silent, they are mistaken,” he vowed, reiterating his opposition to the amendment.
In response, SCBA President Rauf Atta issued a statement rejecting the proposed agitation. He affirmed the SCBA’s confidence in the constitutional bench and its commitment to ensuring the integrity of judicial proceedings.
“The SCBA cannot allow anyone to use the legal fraternity to promote political agendas,” Atta stated. He emphasized that the recommendations of the legal community were fully incorporated in the amendment and criticized Hamid Khan for attempting to align the legal profession with a political stance.
He also clarified that only the SCBA, as the elected representative body of lawyers, has the authority to call for strikes or protests. “Such calls from unelected individuals, particularly politically affiliated figures like Senator Hamid Khan, are divisive and do not reflect the legal fraternity’s stance,” Atta added.
He warned against efforts to create discord within the legal community for “petty political motives” and defended the legitimacy of the amendment, passed by a democratically elected parliament.
