Lawyer impersonator arrested at Aiwan-i-Adl

Lawyers stop man beating up woman over property case.

LAHORE:

A man claiming to be an assistant advocate general beat up a woman who had accused him of property fraud in Aiwan-i-Adl on Monday. The man was handed over to the police and charged with assault and impersonating a lawyer.

The woman, named Shumaila, told The Express Tribune that Syed Safdar Ali started chasing her when she arrived at the Sessions Court to attend case proceedings. She ran to the chambers of her lawyer, Advocate Abdul Qadoos Kamboh, but Ali caught up with her and started beating her up. He struck her in the face several times and tore her clothing. Other lawyers stepped forward to stop the attack.

A Lahore Bar Association source said the lawyers beat up Ali and he confessed that he was not a qualified advocate. They found business cards on him describing him as an assistant advocate general. But there was no record of him at the Punjab Bar Council.

Shumaila said that she was pursuing a case against Ali as he had fraudulently taken over a property that actually belonged to her brother’s family. She said her brother Muhammad Shahid died on August 19, 2008, leaving behind a widow and two daughters. She alleged that Ali had the three-marla house in Jamshed Town transferred to four women who didn’t really exist. He then sold the property for Rs650,000, she said. Ali had threatened to kill her if she did not withdraw the case, she said.

At the police station, Ali insisted that he was a legitimate lawyer, though he had told LBA members at Aiwan-i-Adl that he was not. He told The Express Tribune that it was Shumaila who had sold the property in question and was blaming him for it.

LBA general secretary Rana Intizar said that the association would pursue cases against any person pretending to be a lawyer and working illegally in the courts.

Islampura police station registered an FIR against Ali under Sections 354 and 419 of the Pakistan Penal Code.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2011.