KARACHI:
Disappointed with the “cold treatment” at Chief Minister (CM) House, the lawyers of Karachi have extended their protest by two more days on Monday.
A large number of lawyers, protesting the target killing of their colleagues on Saturday, went to CM House, where they were received by Sindh Katchi Abadis Minister Rafique Engineer and CM’s adviser Rashid Rabbani.
The officials asked the lawyers to give them the memorandum but they refused to hand it over to anyone but the CM. After waiting for some time, the lawyers returned to the high court, where the met at Sindh Bar Council’s (SBC) office.
Later, SBC vice president Iftikhar Javed Qazi, Pakistan Bar Council member Zia Awan, Karachi Bar Association (KBA) president and SBC member Muhammad Aqil, KBA honorary secretary Syed Haider Imam Rizvi and others held a press conference in which they criticised the government and law-enforcement agencies. They also demanded Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah and Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik to resign from their posts.
The lawyers also demanded Pakistan Rangers leave the city. They believed that instead of spending billions of rupees on the force, which is inefficient and unable to stop target killings, the government should strengthen the police.
Referring to the response at CM House, KBA secretary Rizvi said that Shah, who is a lawyer himself, should have considered this fact when he ignored the lawyers.
“When they are in opposition, these people request invitations to address the bar so they can have a forum to attack the government, but when they are in power, they don’t even have a few minutes for us,” he said. He requested the Sindh High Court chief justice to take notice of the target killings of the lawyers and urged the government to introduce a system for issuing arms licences to them so that they can defend themselves.
Qazi said that sectarianism, and land and drug mafias are behind the unabated target killings but neither the government nor its institutions were prepared to take responsibility.
Malir Bar Association secretary Khalid Mehmood also demanded the Rangers leave the city because “they let off the perpetrators of the April 2008 Tahir Plaza blaze”. “They are getting salaries from our taxes but in return they are unable to protect the lives of the tax payers,” he said. During the news conference, the speakers also criticised the SHC Bar Association for not participating in the protest.
The speakers announced that they will continue their strike for two more days and will hold a sit-in on MA Jinnah Road today (Tuesday) and the National Highway on Wednesday. Another meeting will be held today when the lawyers will decide their future plan of action. On Monday, the courts were deserted, no under-trial prisoners were brought and hundreds of cases were adjourned.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 24th, 2011.
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