Rowdyism mars oath-taking of Bajaur bar association

KHAR: Rowdyism was witnessed at the oath-taking ceremony of the Bajaur District Bar Association on Saturday when Member National Assembly (MNA) Mohsin Dawar of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement was invited to the stage to deliver his speech.

The local leaders of various political parties were invited to the oath-taking ceremony, which was being held at the council hall in Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur district. However, former MNA Sahibzada Haroon-ur-Rasheed and Maulana Waheed Gul of Jamaat-e-Islam (JI) objected to inviting Mohsin Dawar to give a speech, which led to a rumpus. The members of the lawyer fraternity and JI workers scuffled, prompting Mohsin Dawar and his colleagues to leave the venue. However, he delivered a brief speech later when the situation calmed down.

Mohsin Dawar said the tribal districts did not have representation in the bar council, adding he had tabled a bill in the National Assembly. The MNA said the merged districts would get representation in the bar council after the passage of the bill. Meanwhile, Javed Shah, former president Bajaur Bar Association, former general secretary Akram Durrani and others condemned the incident, saying that it was against Pakhtun traditions to insult a guest. They added the JI leaders had violated the Constitution of Pakistan by preventing a lawmaker from making a speech at the event. The lawyers asked the chief justice Peshawar High Court to take notice of the incident and order action against the ones, who created disturbance at the oath-taking ceremony.

Also, Bajaur Youth Jirga Chairman Wajid Ali and other office-bearers, including Syed Sadiq Akbar, Mian Ismail Khan, Obaidullah, Fazal Subhan and Sartaj Aziz also expressed resentment over the incident, saying that on behalf of the people of Bajaur, they offered an apology to Mohsin Dawar.