Up in arms

The manner in which lawyers have chosen to try and extort money using their collective power reflects poorly on them.

The lawyers of Karachi recently reacted with rather unexpected violence to the operation of NGOs offering free legal aid to people who have been set up around the district courts of Karachi as well as prisons. The Karachi Bar Association had for some time been demanding that these offices be shut down, primarily, it seems because the legal community believes their existence is eating into the money younger lawyers could earn. More rational and more humanitarian opinion holds that this is hardly a valid complaint and that the NGOs offer invaluable service to those too poor to pay the fees of lawyers. This is vital need in a city where many end up behind bars on charges on involvement in even the pettiest crimes and have no funds to go about the process of securing their release.

While the case regarding the existence of these NGOs has been pending before the Sindh High Court for some months, what is unforgivable is the manner in which the lawyers chose to drive home their message. After a meeting at the court premises, the office of an NGO, run by a women, was attacked and vandalised. This is no way for a professional group to act. We have seen similar behavior from lawyers previously, notably in Lahore. It does nothing to bring credit to them.

The lawyers, backed by other bar associations in the Karachi area, have also decided on a boycott of the courts until the matter is sorted out. This can only add to the plight of litigants who already face long delays in the hearing of cases and are often forced to wait for hours at courts in the hope that the hearing of their petitions will come up. It is true that every group in society has financial needs. But the manner in which lawyers have chosen to try and extort money by using their collective power reflects poorly on them.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th,  2011.