Judge hits lawyer with paperweight

Bar protests, sources say the advocate had started the quarrel

RAWALPINDI:  

Lawyers protested against a civil judge who hit an advocate with a paperweight and a table glass causing minor injuries on hand and ear.

The victim Advocate Arsalan Qureshi said that he went to the court for a case proceeding. He was taking information of his case from court when the Civil Judge Shaukat Hayat, interrupted and told him that his case had been dismissed.

As he protested, the judge initially flung a paperweight at him which injured his left ear and then struck him with a table glass which injured his left hand. The victim was taken to the court’s dispensary while covered in blood, where he was treated.

As the word spread, the District Bar President Tanvir Sohail and other senior lawyers also arrived at the scene and later met with a sessions judge to record their protest over the act.

The situation grew tenser when the lawyers gathered in large numbers and started chanting slogans against the civil judge, after which the sessions judge forwarded the matter to the chief justice.

The lawyers said that the related judge had been involved in such practices in the past, and his powers had been seized once before as well. They announced that no lawyer would appear in his court and demanded that the higher judiciary take action and sack him.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2019.