32 lawyers booked for IHC rowdyism

Bar associations denounce civic authority for demolishing chambers

ISLAMABAD:

A case has been registered against 32 lawyers, including four women law practitioners, for storming the block of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) chief justice and vandalising it.

The FIR registered at the Ramna police station includes Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act besides mob attack causing a threat to life, vandalism, disrupting peace and other relevant clauses of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had razed "illegal structures built on the premises of the District and Sessions Court (DSC)" in the wee hours of Monday. The chambers were constructed on the footpath along with the iron grills outside the court of the district and sessions judge.

In a circular issued by IHC, it was said that a reference would be filed in the Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) for suspension of licences of the suspected lawyers.

It added that the case against the law practitioners has been registered while 21 lawyers including four females have been nominated in the first information report (FIR). However, by evening, police had added 11 more suspects to the list.

The lawyers nominated by IHC include Tassaduq Hanif, Shehla Shaan Abbasi, Hammad, Umar Khayyam, Ahsan Majeed Gujjar, Khalid Mahmood, Shaista Tabassum, Yasir Khan, Naheed, Ashfeen, Raja Fakhr, Naseer Kayani, Arbab Ayub Gujjar, Asadullah, Raja Zahid, Liaquat Manzoor, Naveed Malik, Khalid Taj, Shoaib Chaudhry, Meraj Tareen, and Zafar Khokhar. Islamabad police were conducting raids to arrest the suspects.

Further, contempt of court proceedings would also be initiated against the assailants.

Young Turks differ

A few black sheep in black coats are giving a bad name to a noble profession which was practised by the Quaid-i-Azam, said a meeting of the Young Lawyers’ Forum (YLF). The forum condemned the attack on the chief justice’s chamber in Islamabad.

A meeting of the YLF of the Islamabad High Court Bar was held in which the participants called for strict action against the lawyers involved in the rampage. The forum said that a motion condemning the attack would be approved soon.

'Equipment stolen'

The fact that the operation was conducted in the absence of the owners and without notice that did not allow them to remove their belongings, could be held as basis of legal action against the authorities, said members of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) and the Islamabad District Bar Association (IDBA).

The IHCBA and IDBA denounced the CDA and police for the attack on lawyers’ chambers and said that the illegal activity in the chambers was conducted in the dark without informing them. They added that the aerial firing during the operation proved the presence of criminal elements among the officials involved in the operation.

They said that the attackers not only destroyed under construction chambers but also stole books, computers, important files and valuable belongings of lawyers from the demolished chambers.

IHC ransacked

The lawyers barged into the senior-most judge's chamber and chanted slogans against the judiciary and the CDA for the action.

Justice Minallah was reportedly trapped inside his chamber following the incident. The protesters also forced the rest of the judges out of their courtrooms.

On the occasion, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked the lawyers to resolve the matter through dialogue, but they refused, saying the issue must be resolved at once.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Additional Attorney General Tariq Mahmood Khokhar said that the storming of the Islamabad High Court by a mob of lawyers was an attack on the judiciary.

"It’s a new low for the lawyers. Not so long ago a hospital in Lahore was ransacked and its staff was beaten up. What next. The Supreme Court?" he wondered. Khokhar also said that today he is ashamed to be a member of the legal fraternity.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2021.