Lawyers must shun violence, says Asma

Supreme Court Bar Association to hold seminar on Saturday.

LAHORE: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Asma Jahangir on Thursday said that the bar was against the use of force by lawyers and condemned recent violent incidents involving lawyers.

She said lawyers needed to improve and regretted that some had become a hurdle to the early disposal of cases by getting unnecessary adjournments. She said there was a dire need to protect the reputation of the black coat in the eyes of the people.

Jahangir was speaking at a press conference at her election office. She said that the promises made during the lawyers’ movement to make the bar and judiciary independent were yet to be fulfilled.

She also talked about a seminar that will be held on Saturday, February 12, called ‘Dispensation of Justice_Challenges Ahead’. The speakers will discuss key legal reforms, public interest litigation, protection of rights, weakness and strengths of national judicial policy and accountability of lawyers and judges, she explained.

It was the bar’s responsibility to point out weaknesses in the judicial system, she said. “The basic principles should not be forgotten during differences of opinion between the bar and the bench,” she added. She said that both the lawyers and the judges were accountable to maintain the integrity of the black coat.

Replying to a media query about the dissolution of the federal cabinet and induction of a new one, the SCBA president said, “Democracy is my belief.” She lamented that the country had a weak government and a judiciary without substance.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2011.