District bar to seek inquiry against complaining judges

Demand will be put before the LHC chief justice today.

LAHORE:

The Lahore Bar Association (LBA) delegation will meet the Lahore High Court chief justice on Saturday (today) and demand an inquiry against 24 additional district and sessions judges who have sought transfer away from Lahore presumably to avoid maltreatment by lawyers.

The decision was taken by an LBA executive meeting held at Aiwan-i-Adl on Friday. The meeting described the judges’ requests for transfer as trade union activity and said that such measures could harm the judicial system.

A proposal to stop the 24 judges from holding court was turned down on grounds that it could be used by the judges in support of their case, a lawyer speaking on condition of anonymity said. He said another suggestion about holding a strike and boycotting courts on Saturday was also rejected.

Meanwhile, District and Session Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem Ahmed was said to have denied that he had played any role in sending the application to LHC Registrar Sohail Nasir on Thursday.

The DSJ met some LBA representatives in a separate meeting at his chamber. DSJ Ahmed was quoted as saying that he was away from his chamber at the time the application was sent to the registrar. The judge told the LBA representatives that he had not issued any show-cause notices to the judges over the application.

DSJ Ahmed said the maltreatment complaint by the judges did not identify any of the members of the bar association. The LBA representatives, however, were not satisfied. They said the application was an indirect attack on them. “If it doesn’t refer to the LBA members then who can be the lawyers that are said to be harassing judges in Lahore?” they asked. They said the LBA would not tolerate attempts by judges to tarnish its image in the eyes of the public. The application sent to the LHC registrar on Friday by 24 judges had sought transfer away from the city. It had held maltreatment at the hands of lawyers as their reason for seeking the transfer.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2012.