As lawyers strike, Balochistan awaits justice

Complaints increasing about lawyers’ boycotts, which began in 2007.

QUETTA:

The doors to justice are often closed in Balochistan. With frequent strikes by lawyers and abandoned courtrooms, the number of cases pending before courts has doubled.

Hafiz Mohammad Ali and others like him often return home disappointed. Ali’s brother is facing charges for a criminal case. He has been seeking bail for his brother for the past several weeks, but the date of hearing has been adjourned three times because of the lawyers’ strike, forcing the accused to remain behind bars.

Hundreds of people in Balochistan face the same fate. Thousands of cases are pending in the Balochistan High Court, session courts and with local magistrates.

“Each court lines up 20 to 25 cases daily, but merely five to six can be heard when there is a strike after 11 am,” a registrar said. “People travel from 25 to 30 kilometres away from Quetta for case hearings, only to see that courts have been boycotted for another day,” he added.

“The lawyers observe strike almost every alternative day over missing persons, kidnappings, killings etc,” said Saeed Ahmed, who had come to file a petition. “It seems that no one cares about the civilians,” he added.  “If everything is okay, lawyers observe the anniversary of the ouster of Chief Justice Ifthikar Muhammad Chaudhry and boycott court proceedings,” he mumbled.

There are increasing number of complaints about lawyers’ boycotts, which people say began in 2007 after the ouster of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Since the past two weeks lawyers have been boycotting court proceedings every day. The protests started when two judges were kidnapped, but even after their recovery, lawyers continued to boycott court proceedings after 11 am in protest of four missing lawyers.

The number of cases pending before the Balochistan High Court (BHC) has increased to an alarming level not only because of strikes, but also because there are not enough judges. According to sources in the BHC, more than 10,000 cases are pending.

The total number of judges required at the Balochistan High Court is eight but only five judges, including the chief justice, are presently working. Sources said that the vacancies for three judges have been lying vacant for more than a year and so far no recommendations had been made to fill the places.

Contrary to other provinces, only the principal bench of the Balochistan High Court is working in Quetta and litigants arrive from Turbat, Gwadar, Zhob, Marri-Bugti, Kharan and Chagai, which are 500 to 800 kilometres from Quetta. However, their cases are not heard because there are either not enough judges or it’s another day of strike.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2011.