Sessions court: Lawyers’ attitude towards security heightens risk

LBA president denies that lawyers do not cooperate with police.

LAHORE:

Policemen deployed at the judges’ gate of the sessions’ court are complaining that an untoward incident at the court complex cannot be ruled out as most lawyers refuse to stop at the entrance for a security check.

This, they say, can result in anyone posing as a lawyer passing the gate without checking.

The Lahore Bar Association president, however, denies that lawyers are not cooperating with the police. The LBA president accused the policemen of allowing litigants who bribed them to use the gate in violation of rules.

The policemen deployed for security said there had been concerns about security ever since the proceedings of National Insurance Corporation Limited scam and certain other high-profile cases began at the sessions court. However, they added, security was recently put on high alert following clashes on the premises.

They said the directives of the Islampura station house officer were clear that no one could enter the court from judges’ gate without a security check. The lawyers, however, refused to be frisked, they added. They said lawyers use derogatory language for them if they ever dared asking them to stop for a security check.

“A lawyer cussed at me for ‘ruining his shirt’ after I had frisked him before letting him through the gate,” a policeman said.

Another official said a prosecutor had a few days ago parked his car in front of the gate despite several requests to take it to the parking lot. “When I told him that it was against the rules he threatened me with dismissal from the job,” he said.

In another incident, the policemen said, a lawyer had started a fight with the security in-charge, Basharat Ali, accusing him of “touching him in an inappropriate manner”. The matter went to District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmed who settled it after watching the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage. The lawyer had to apoligise to the judge after the allegations were proven wrong.

They said they have conveyed the concern to the Islampura station house officer but no action had been taken so far.

SHO Muhammad Ameen said that complaints had been lodged by policemen deployed at the court. He said he had approached the LBA and requested cooperation with the security officials.

He said lawyers were not cooperating with policemen. “They should realise that policemen are assigned to ensure their safety,” he said.

LBA president Shehzad Hassan Shaikh denied that lawyers were not cooperating with the police. Instead, he accused the police of accepting bribes from litigants and letting them enter the court from judges’ gate. “We realise it is a sensitive area and any untoward incident can take place if security arrangements are compromised,” he said.

The SHO said he had not yet received any complaint against the policemen for taking bribes.

More than 10 clashes between police and lawyers at the sessions court premises were reported in August. At least two incidents involved lawyers’ beating policemen for asking them to stop their cars for a security check.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2011.