LAHORE, May 6: The Lahore High Court Bar Association on Friday rejected a resolution seeking association of the bar in the construction of the high court’s western wing. The resolution, moved by Advocate Abdul Basit, also wanted impleadment of the bar as a party to the judicial proceedings in regard to the raising of a new structure on the Gothic architecture to provide space for more courtrooms.

The LHCBA meeting, presided over by Fakharunnisa Khokhar, ran into pandemonium when the resolution was moved and the house started considering it. A majority of the lawyers rejected the resolution. Only seven members supported it and 200 opposed it.

The resolution also called for the constitution of an LHCBA committee to consider the high court building issue since it started in August last year. It also wanted a mandate to the bar president to constitute a committee to probe into the use of Asian Development Bank funds made available to the LHC for the Access to Justice Programme.

Fakharunnisa was the only voice in support of the resolution, while it was opposed by a good number of lawyers. The resolution apparently annoyed a majority of the lawyers who said the bar forum should not be used to settle personal score.

Jailed: An anti-narcotics court on Friday sentenced a Nigerian, Benon Waka, to 14 years in prison with a fine of Rs400,000 for smuggling heroin.

Upon a plea by special prosecutor Kashif Javed, judge Pervez Ali Chawla ordered the release of two other Nigerians, Charles Ibezaiko and Richard Obi, and two citizens of Azerbaijan, Gulnaz Bahar and Serda Firuddin, as they had already served the prison term proportionate to the quantity of the drug recovered from their possession.

The court ordered that Benon Waka would serve another one year in prison if he failed to pay the fine. They were arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force from Model Town in 2003 and heroin weighing six kilogramme was allegedly recovered from them. Bulk of the contraband drug was recovered from Waka.