A group of lawyers led by vice president of High Court Bar Association have opposed inviting PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz to address the bar during her scheduled visit to Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto on Dec 27 and urged Sindh High Court registrar to cancel the invitation “to avoid complications”. HCBA vice president Mazhar Ali Mangan and senior advocate Qadir Bakhsh Bhatti said at a press conference that the bar’s general secretary Ashfaque Abro had extended the invitation without taking into confidence general body. The invitation to Maryam Nawaz to address the bar was against by-laws and rules, hence it should be withdrawn or cancelled, they said. They said that PML-N leadership was pushing an anti-state narrative and talking against law enforcement agencies. Maryam Nawaz’s coming to the bar might lead to an unpleasant situation, they warned. They rejected the general secretary’s claim that the invitation bore signatures of 400 lawyers and said that many among the signatories were law students and not even enrolled as members of the bar. Showing a copy of application addressed to the bar president bearing signatures of vice president, joint secretary, library secretary and members of managing committee, they said that it had been conveyed to the president that sending the invitation to Maryam Nawaz to address the bar was against by-laws and rules.