“Since PHC chief justice started putting corrupt police officers behind bars, police have started targeting lawyers as they cannot harm the chief justice himself,” Aminur Rehman, PHCBA’s general secretary, told The Express Tribune on Monday.
Rehman was part of the lawyers who boycotted court proceedings on Monday following the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council’s call to condemn last week’s killing of senior lawyer Salahuddin Haider and his son in Karachi.
PHCBA members demanded the government to take concrete steps to provide security to lawyers. They also demanded that the government bring Haider’s killers to justice.
Rehman said that a meeting has been called where lawyers will meet the chief justice and formulate a strategy on the matter. “Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is also scheduled to visit the PHC on March 31 and the matter will be brought into his notice as well.”
He said that whoever dared to speak the truth in the province was either killed or beaten up. “Not just lawyers but journalists who speak out are targeted.” He condemned the murder of Muhammad Rehman Khan, a lawyer who was killed on Sunday by unidentified men in Katlang area of the district. “Syed Aftab, another lawyer in Mardan, was picked up by police, taken to Shahbaz Garhi police station and beaten up,” he said.
“Lawyers are continuously being targeted but the government is least bothered,” PHCBA President Khwaja Muhammad Khan Garha told The Express Tribune. He demanded that the government should not only compensate Haider’s family but also bear all expenses, including academic and medical, of his legal heirs.
PHCBA has announced that it will continue the boycott on Tuesday.
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