Islamabad protest: SCBA president shows picture of ‘Quetta bomber’

Criticises govt, judiciary for not doing enough to apprehend culprits

ISLAMABAD: As hundreds of lawyers staged a protest outside parliament on Monday, Supreme Court Bar Association President Ali Zafar showed to the media the picture of what he called the suicide bomber who mowed down 74 people, mostly lawyers, at Quetta’s Civil Hospital on August 8.

“Why our security agencies have been unable to identify the suspected bomber,” Zafar said while addressing nearly 500 lawyers who had gathered outside the Parliament House on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

The protesting lawyers warned of launching a second phase of protests from September 8 if perpetrators of the Quetta attack were apprehended by then.

PBC Vice Chairman Farogh Nasim questioned why the Supreme Court had yet to take suo motu notice of the attack despite a request from the lawyers’ body. He was backed by Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Abdul Ghani Khilji.

Nasim went on to lament that the heirs of the slain lawyers have yet to be paid compensation announced by the government.

As the lawyers gathered outside the parliament, only senior lawyer and PPP Senator Aitzaz Ahsan and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq came out to join the demonstrators. No one from the treasury benches joined them.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2016.