Demolishing illegal chambers: Lawyers continue court boycott, mull protest

Demand that govt make new courts complex, chambers to permanently resolve matter

ISLAMABAD: After chambers built by lawyers were demolished for being encroachment and some lawyers were booked, lawyers continued to boycott cases in the Sector F-8 district courts on Wednesday, causing hundreds of cases to be adjourned without any progress.

A group of lawyers is mulling plans to stage a protest demonstration over the demolition of their chambers in the district courts.

Angered over the demolition of their chambers, lawyers continued their five-day-long boycott of courts on Wednesday.

They even boycotted hearings of some important cases.

In past court boycotts, lawyers usually made an appearance during the hearings of important cases such as bail applications. However, lawyers even boycotted those cases on Wednesday.

The justice process is already on a partial break until January 2 on account of a winter break in the courts. While there is a duty judge present to hear urgent cases, most of the cases have been adjourned until the new year.

Last Friday, chambers of lawyers in Sector F-8 Kutchery had been demolished in the dead of the night. This prompted angry protestations from the lawyers the following morning who started rebuilding their chambers.

On Sunday evening, they built some chambers in front of the post office in the kutchery. At this, the staff of the post office told the lawyers to stop since land in front of the post office legally belonged to Pakistan Post and thus any construction there would be an encroachment of state land.

The lawyers, however, continued undeterred.

On Monday, the staff of the post office demolished the newly built chambers. Moreover, an FIR was registered with the Margalla police station on an application filed by a Pakistan Post officer against six lawyers for building the chambers.

“There is a post office next to the district courts in Sector F-8 Markaz,” explained Pakistan Post Assistant Engineer Raja Ikhlaq on Wednesday. “Some lawyers had started the illegal construction of chambers in front of the post office.”

“The construction was initially stopped, but it resumed a few days ago,” Ikhlaq said, adding, “We told the lawyers that as per the law, land in front of the post office belongs to us but the lawyers retorted that no law applies to them.”

Ikhlaq added that the exchange soon grew heated and the lawyers allegedly locked some of the post office’s staff in a room but the police cooperated with the post office’s staff and booked the lawyers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2018.