On the streets: Lawyers threaten country-wide protests

Bar leaders give the govt two weeks to bring the culprits to book.

LAHORE: Lawyers will start a country-wide protest movement if the police fail to submit a challan against those accused of killing two lawyers in Daska in two weeks, it was announced at Lahore Bar Association’s meeting at Aiwan-i-Adl on Wednesday.

Several members of the Punjab Bar Council, former and current office bearers of the LBA, and hundreds of lawyers attended the meeting.

They said they would devise a strategy to launch a movement if the police did not submit a challan in court in 14 days, and the court did not sentence the culprits to death within 15 days of receiving the challan. They demanded immediate suspension of police officers including the Punjab IGP, the Daska SP, the Sialkot DPO and Daska DSP.

They said the civilian and military establishments were complicit in the murder of lawyers in Kamoke, Renala Khurd, Chunian and Daska.

Faiz Ali, a member of the Punjab Bar Council, said the civil and military establishments wanted to suppress lawyers because they had always raised their voices against atrocities which they had committed. It is unfortunate that the judiciary has not stood up for lawyers in their time of need, he said.

Ali said that Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor A Malik had claimed that he’d prefer to be known as an advocate of the Supreme Court. “Now is the time for Justice Malik to stand alongside lawyers and prove that he is a lawyer at heart,” he said.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has nominated Rana Sanaullah to hold talks with the Punjab Bar Council but “we have refused to talk to him because he is not the appropriate authority,” he said.



“This is not going to be like the Model Town violence…We are lawyers. We will make sure that justice is served.”

Chaudhry Akram, a member of the Punjab Bar Council, said the government was entirely to blame for the Daska incident. He said it had earlier tried to weaken them by bringing in military courts.

Punjab Bar Council member Chaudhry Munir Hussain Bhatti said more than 40 murder cases had been registered against Daska SHO Shehzad Warraich.

A resolution moved by Lahore Bar Association senior vice president Muhammad Jahangir Bhatti against the use of the word Wukala Gardi (lawyers’ hooliganism) in electronic and print media was passed. Bhatti said TV anchor persons and TV channels would face strict action if they tried to paint the incident as ab episode of wukala gardi.

After the meeting, the lawyers held a rally from Aiwan-i-Adl to PMG Chowk. They blocked the road for traffic and burned tyres. The lawyers shouted slogans against the government, the chief minister and the Punjab Police. They carried placards demanding suspension of Daska police officers.

Led by Lahore High Court Bar Association president Pir Masood Chishti and LHCBA general secretary Muhammad Ahmed Qayum, scores of LHCBA members staged a sit-in at GPO Chowk. Pakistan Bar Council vice chairman Azam Nazeer Tarar was also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2015.