Lawyers' thuggery

Violence within court premises is a frontal assault on the justice system itself. The disturbing scenes from Karachi City Court, where YouTuber Rajab Butt was manhandled and beaten by a group of lawyers during a routine bail hearing, demand more than perfunctory outrage. They call for institutional introspection and decisive action.

Courts are meant to be sanctuaries of due process — spaces where disputes, however emotive, are resolved through argument and evidence, not fists and intimidation. When members of the legal fraternity, entrusted with upholding the law, are accused of criminal intimidation and assault within court premises, the damage goes far beyond the individual victim. It corrodes public confidence in an already strained justice system. The facts, as they have emerged, are troubling. Butt had arrived to seek bail in a case registered under Section 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code — a provision that deals with deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings and one that has repeatedly proven combustible in Pakistan's charged social climate.

According to the FIR, a group of lawyers allegedly attacked Butt near the court's inner premises, assaulted his counsel, injured him physically and even stripped him of cash during the chaos. That one of the named accused is also the complainant in the original case against Butt only deepens concerns about abuse of power. Lawyers' violence has become an uncomfortable but recurring feature of Pakistan's judicial landscape. A small but emboldened segment of the bar has repeatedly acted with impunity.

Equally worrying is the context. Cases involving allegation of blasphemy or hurting religious sentiments are among the most sensitive in the country. Precisely for this reason, courts must be bastions of restraint. Justice cannot survive in an atmosphere of fear. If the courts are to command respect, they must first uphold the law above all else, including personal belief.