A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday ordered the Faisalabad regional police officer (RPO) to release the lawyers arrested in Jhang and barred the police from making further arrests in the case.
The bench comprising acting Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh issued the order during the hearing of a petition against the arrests of dozens of lawyers during a protest against Jhang DPO Farooq Mazhar outside his office.
The court also summoned entire record of the case by the next hearing on August 2.
On Monday, Shan Gul, the law officer appearing on behalf of the Punjab government, told the court that only two lawyers Zafar Khan Chandia and Qalandar Bhatti and two clerks Mazhar Abbas and Abid Hussain were in police custody. He said that they were earlier presented before an anti-terrorism court in Faisalabad on Monday and that the court had granted them bail.
He said that the four had not been released so far because they had not furnished surety bonds. The court then ordered the police to immediately release the men on personal surety.
Asghar Ali Gill, the LHC Bar Association president, and Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique informed the court that Advocate Mehr Shahadat Sial and Advocate Ahsanullah Sial were still missing. They claimed that the police had arrested the two on July 21, after which there had been no word on their whereabouts. The court directed the RPO to recover the missing lawyers and produce them before the court at the next hearing.
The judges showed displeasure over addition of Section-7 of the Anti Terrorism Act in the case.
Justice Saeed observed, “Why were the lawyers charged under the anti-terrorism law? Were they wearing suicide jackets... or what?”
The judges also sought assistance from both sides on circumstances in which a person should be charged under Section-7 of the ATA.
They lawyers complained that the Jhang DPO had misbehaved with them. Later, after the court proceedings were over, lawyers gathered outside the LHC and shouted slogans against the DPO. Gill demanded immediate suspension of the DPO by the government.
At a previous hearing, the court had directed the RPO to produce the 38 arrested lawyers.
The petitioner, Advocate Muharram Ali, had said that the Jhang district bar association members had protested against the DPO’s misbehaviour when they were attacked and beaten up on his directions.
He said that the police had arrested 38 lawyers and registered an FIR against them at Kotwali police station. He said that the arrested lawyers were shifted to some other place and ‘tortured’.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2011.
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