‘No peace until we say so’

LAHORE: Court work came to a halt as all the subordinate judges stuck to their demands – saying that they would not hold proceedings until the District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) Zawar Ahmed Sheikh returned to his office.

The DSJ was told to stop functioning by the Lahore High Court on the lawyers’ demand.

The judges did not return to the courts although the Lahore High Court, after negotiating with lawyers, had cancelled the leaves of the lower courts’ judges approved earlier by the DSJ. The judges re-avowed that they would continue their strike until the DSJ’s return.

The judges and the staff of about 120 courts of additional district and sessions judges, civil judges as well as family courts were absent from duty.

Abdul Sattar Asghar, the LHC registrar, visited the sessions court and held a meeting with the judges. He told the judges that the DSJ would return in a few days, ostensibly on account of the security situation. He asked the judges to return to work in order to reduce the problems for the people.

Later the LHC issued a statement, similar to that issued on Monday, saying that the judges’ strike had been called off and they would return to the courts from Wednesday.

On the other hand, the Lahore Bar Association’s (LBA) general house meeting, during which a resolution against the judges was supposed to be passed, could not make any headway because the lawyers got divided into two groups.

A group of lawyers started chanting slogans against their president, Sajib Bashir, while the other group responded with slogans in favour of the president.The anti-president group condemned his meeting with Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court after Chaudary had “held the lawyers responsible of the clash”.

The group said that Bashir had negated the lawyers’ mandate by holding a meeting with the judge without taking them into confidence “for his vested interests”. The exchange continued for half an hour and Bashir left the bar room without delivering his speech or presenting the resolution before the general house.

The LBA, according to a press release issued on Tuesday, has issued show-cause notices to the lawyers who threw shoes and plastic bottles at the judges’ vehicles and has also sought an apology.

The press release condemned continuance of the strike by the judges despite the LHC’s directions. The bar also alleged that the 120 judges who had gathered on the sessions court premises on Monday “wanted a fight with the lawyers”.

The LBA had been demanding transfer of the DSJ Zawar Ahmed Sheikh for not accepting the demands of its president, Sajid Bashir. Bashir said that the judges were rude to the lawyers, while the judges maintained that Bashir and the LBA had turned against them because the sessions judge had refused to accommodate Bashir’s recommendations for appointment of naib qasids.

On Monday, the lawyers locked the DSJ’s court room after forcing him to leave  and chanted slogans against other judges. They also hurled shoes and pelted his vehicle with stones when the police tried to escort him out of the court premises.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2010.