PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf`s lawyers` wing, Insaf Lawyers Forum, on Monday suspended membership of former general secretary of the forum Muazzam Butt for disciplinary violation by addressing a news conference against the ILF provincial president and otherpartyleaders.

ILF provincial president Qazi Mohammad Anwar issued a notification for the purpose, whereas a show cause notice was also issued to Mr Butt giving him seven days to explain why his basic membership of the forum should not be cancelled.

In the notification as well as show cause notice, Mr Anwar said that Mr Butt along with another lawyer, Ameer Ijaz Khan, addressed a news conference in Peshawar on Feb 22 wherein besides levelling false, fabricated allegations against his person (Mr Anwar), criticising the performance of the government in the province, the competency of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general and law officers working under the AG, had also questioned the authority of the founding chairman of the PTI Imran Khan by asking as to under what law and legal authority the `PTI internal committee for accountability` had been constituted in the province.

`No one in the PTI or ILF can question the authority of the founding chairman Imran Khan in respect of directions or issuance of orders for compliance within PTI. Therefore, your basic membership of ILF Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been suspended today and the provincial president of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has been requested to take similar action against you in the PTI,` states Mr Anwar in the show cause notice.

In the notification, Mr Anwar has declared Mr Butt should not be invited to any function of the ILF in the province and no one in the forum should have any contact with him.

Mr Butt, in that news conference, had levelled several allegations against Mr Anwar claiming that he had been receiving extortion money from the advocate general office and also demanding privileges for himself.

He claimed that Mr Anwar was not faithful to Imran Khan and his vision.

Mr Butt had claimed that Mr Anwar had been interfering in the affairs of the provincial government.

Also, Mr Anwar has served a legal notice on Mr Butt and Ameer Ijaz Khan under the Defamation Ordinance, 2002, demanding damages to the tune of Rs500 million from each of them for `damaging` his reputation.

In the notice, he rejected all allegations levelled against him by Mr Butt and Mr Ijaz and insisted that he had never received any money from ILF, the provincial government or anybody else. Bureau Report