Lawyer apologises for courtroom rant

Lawyer Manzar had erupted in anger and accused the judge of incompetence.

LAHORE:

A lawyer apologised to a judge at the Sessions Courts on Monday for his angry rant at the judge after a verdict in a case went against him last week.

Advocate Chaudhry Manzar, accompanied by five other lawyers, appeared before Additional District and Sessions Judge Bushra Zaman and apologised, just as the judge was directing her staff to write to the district and sessions judge to hold an inquiry into the incident.

Last week, Manzar had erupted in anger and accused the judge of incompetence after she disposed of his petition seeking directions to Islampura police to register a case on his client’s application. She told the Islampura station house officer to “look into the matter and act according to the law”.

The advocate started shouting at the judge to issue clear directions to the SHO to simply register the FIR and flung the case file at her. In an angry tirade, Manzar questioned how she became a judge, told her she knew nothing about the law and accused her of mistreating lawyers.

On Monday when Manzar apologised, Zaman told him that lawyers could not tell a judge how a decision is made. She said lawyers should learn to accept verdicts and not harangue judges to change their orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2011.