Bench vs bar: AG asks law officers to help ease tension

Ashtar Ausaf writes to 130 law officers, seeking role of bridge between bench and bar

ISLAMABAD: The Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) has asked all law officers to play the role of a bridge between the bench and the bar to ease the ongoing tension.

The request from Ashtar Ausaf Ali came in a letter despatched to more than 130 law officers in the country, two days after a scuffle in Lahore between lawyers and the police over non-bailable arrest warrants for a lawyers’ leader.

The letter says, “These are turbulent times and agitation at the bar associations on all the benches is escalating. We need to act proactively and responsibly.”

A five-judge larger bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had issued an order for the arrest of Sher Zaman Qureshi, the president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) Multan Chapter, after he did not appear before the bench in a case of contempt of court.

On July 24, Qureshi and other lawyers allegedly attacked the court of Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan in LHC’s Multan bench, tore off the judge’s name plate and trampled it under their feet. After the incident, the LHC chief justice withdrew judges from the Multan bench.

The letter from the AGP further reads: “As lawyers it is our responsibility to uphold the dignity of the bar and to show respect to the judicial organ. It is my earnest desire that the attorney general’s office should act as a bridge between the bar and the bench. Each one of you has his own respective area of influence and standing at the bar. You are in your own right opinion makers.

“In these trying times you can act as agents of positive and healthy change. Please voice your opinion and make it known that we stand united in condemning high-handedness and that you are committed to the cause of the unity the dignity of bar and the bench. We all know that strikes and demonstrations do not bring about resolution of disputes between the bar and the bench. Such calls are to be shunned.”

The letter adds, “General public should know that we are responsible citizens who do not believe in agitational politics and believe in peaceful resolution of our differences. I will urge you all to play your role in bringing an end to this chaos.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2017.