Reaction to target killings: Lawyers to be discouraged from representing ‘terrorists’

Sindh Bar Council calls for a weekly strike.

KARACHI:

The Sindh Bar Council (SBC) and the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) will be discouraging lawyers from representing people accused in terrorism cases, said SBC vice chairman, Iftikhar Javed Qazi, during a joint press conference on Thursday.

“We cannot stop any lawyer from representing an accused arrested in a case of terrorism but we will try to discourage lawyers from representing one,” Qazi said. Under the legal practitioners’ code, they cannot prevent any lawyer from taking up these cases, but if they are convinced that someone is involved, they will discourage the lawyers. This will not apply to everyone charged.

Lawyers in Sindh are taking this stance as they are angry about the lack of action taken against the targeted killings of their colleagues, two of who were gunned down in one week.

During the press conference, the lawyers announced in reaction that they would go on a hunger strike in front of Chief Minister House and organise an hour-long token strike every Thursday, throughout the province. Qazi said that a newly formed five-member coordination committee would make this decision and inform the lawyers about it. He refused to reveal the date and time of the strike in case the government tries to stop them. Their protest is not date-specific as the coordination committee will be sitting from today to take decisions and every bar association and council will be consulted about the plan for a perpetual protest.

“The government is indifferent towards the lawyers, even though the chief minister is a lawyer himself,” said Qazi. He added that the government had promised to send a representative to the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) to discuss the issue but nothing has happened yet. He said that he would contact the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court and urge them to take an action against the perpetrators of these acts of violence.

The three-day strike was to send a message to the government that the people would not tolerate these senseless killings. “We, as a community, are going to protect the lives of all citizens and our resolve would be equal to that shown during the 2007 movement for the restoration of the superior judiciary,” said Qazi.

Qazi said that the compensation of a few hundred thousand rupees to the family of the victims of terrorism was meagre, and he demanded it to be at least a million rupees. “It is the peoples’ money and should be spent for their welfare, particularly the affected families,” he concluded.

KBA president Muhammad Aqil said that political parties and other stakeholders would be taken on board as the struggle against target killings was not just for lawyers, but for all citizens.

The KBA secretary, Syed Haider Imam Rizvi, said that another advocate, Mujahid, was badly beaten but the attackers left when he drew out his licensed pistol. “First they tried to kill him but after seeing his weapon, they ran away,” he said. “The Sindh chief minister, besides being the chief executive of the province also holds the portfolio of home minister, and he has failed by all standards.”

The others who addressed the joint press conference were Hanif Kashmir, Khalid Mehmood of Malir Bar Association, Khalid Khan Marwat of the SBC.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2011.