Meanwhile, a postal worker also filed a complaint with the police on Monday claiming that a group of lawyers had encroached on the nearby post office and threatened to kill postal workers who tried to intervene. The lawyers allegedly also locked the postal workers in the Post Office, and while the police later released the workers, no arrests were made and the encroachments remain.
On the flip side, the ongoing lawyers strike over razing of their chambers and their demand for rotating postings of judges has left litigants to suffer. The lawyers have also threatened to lock down Islamabad if their demands are not met.
After their illegal occupation was called out, lawyers are demanding that they be allowed to break the law and are threatening to cause an entire city to suffer if their law-breaking is not tolerated. Yet, there has been no word on this from the superior judiciary or any association of lawyers. All associations have actually been backing the lawyers.
To further illustrate the hypocrisy, homes in the slums are razed. Even shops are levelled for encroaching a few feet. Then why should these offices, which are entirely illegal, be tolerated? Lawyers claim they need to build illegal offices because the IHC is using the new district courts complex till its own building is ready. But why should private practice be subsidised by the government? Law practices are for-profit businesses, and they should be treated as such. Perhaps, it’s time for the superior judiciary to make the lawyers respect the law.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 28th, 2018.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ