Lawyer gunned down in Quetta drive-by shooting

Abdul Razzaq Shar Advocate, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Quetta's Airport Road on Tuesday morning, igniting an overwhelming outpouring of grief from within the legal fraternity.

Shar was heading towards the Balochistan High Court (BHC), when unidentified assailants opened fire on the vehicle he was travelling in. According to the police, the lawyer died at the scene.

Police reached the spot and shifted the body to the Civil Hospital Quetta, where a large number of lawyers, relatives, and friends had gathered. The provincial bar association announced a two-day court boycott in protest against the lawyer’s assassination.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Quddus Bizenjo and Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove condemned the killing and directed the police to arrest the culprits behind the attack. Bizenjo also directed the police to submit a report about the attack.

Shar was the main petitioner, seeking registration of a treason case against the chairperson of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The hearing of the case was scheduled for June 7 (today), according to a senior lawyer.

Soon after the incident, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Ataullah Tarar held PTI chairperson “directly responsible” for the targeted killing of Shar. He alleged that the PTI chief got the lawyer killed to protect himself from the treason case.

Read BHC adjourns treason case hearing

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Tarar termed the killing of Shar the “murder of the law”. He added that the PTI chief would be nominated in the murder case and assured that a thorough investigation would be carried out.

Reacting to Tarar’s press conference, PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan said that the first information report (FIR) of Shar’s murder should be registered against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.

He urged the Supreme Court to take immediate notice of another attempt to register “a fake case” against the PTI chief, saying that allegations against the PTI chairman were the continuity of an ongoing “illegal and unconstitutional campaign” to crush the PTI.

“Declaring the PTI chairman responsible for the murder of a lawyer without investigation of the incident, is a shameful act of the government. It has become habit of the government to blame the PTI chief for any ugly incident without investigation,” he said.

Shar had moved a petition in the BHC for invoking Article 6 of the Constitution – high treason – against the PTI chairman for violating the Constitution in April last year by advising the president to dissolve the National Assembly.

A BHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Muhammad Amir Nawaz Rana, had sought replies from the additional attorney general and the deputy attorney general by June 7 (today).