What can one say of the scenes shown on television channels of running battles between the police and lawyers?
LAHORE: What can one say of the scenes shown on television channels of running battles between the police and lawyers in Lahore?
The noble profession of lawyers owes its existence to the courts, which are there to provide judicial relief to ordinary people. It is unacceptable that the courts created to provide justice to people have become hostage to a few rogue elements within the lawyer community.
The people of Pakistan were not willing to pardon a military dictator who tried to detain the chief justice of Pakistan, so how can they allow a group of lawyers to vandalise the office of the chief justice of the Lahore High Court?
These lawyers have already crossed the line and an example should be made out of them. The seeds of this vandalism were sown when a lawyer slapped a judicial magistrate and the matter was not taken seriously. It is time lawyers learn that, as officers of law, they do not have the right to interfere in judicial postings and appointments, nor can they consider themselves to be above the law. The Lahore Bar has the distinction of nurturing lawyers of repute like Allama Iqbal, Malik Barkat Ali, Manzoor Qadir, Ahmed Saeed Kirmani, Aitzaz Ahsan and Khalid Mahmood.
It is sad to see this bar become involved in acts which amount to hooliganism and interference in the judicial process.
T Ali
Published in The Express Tribune October 4th, 2010.
