SUKKUR/ HYDERABAD/ KARACHI:
Across the province, lawyers stayed away from the courts on Thursday to protest the ‘hasty’ amendment in the country’s contempt laws. Terming the amendments “a mockery of the constitution”, they wore black armbands and hoisted black flags at high court buildings and district bar offices.
To express their anger on the government’s “wrongdoings” following the passage of Contempt of Court Bill, 2012 (Amendment), the province’s legal fraternity had called to observe a black day.
The strike call was given by the Sindh Bar Council (SBC), the top provincial body of lawyers, and the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), the country’s largest bar association.
In Karachi
Mehmoodul Hasan, the KBA president, while speaking at the general body meeting, said that the amendment in contempt law was done with mala fide intent to save a few individuals and to sidetrack the issue of writing a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
The KBA members alleged that the legal modifications were aimed at crippling the independent judiciary so that it could not take any action against corrupt practices and politicians.
The association has challenged the controversial amendment by filing a petition in the Supreme Court.
KBA General Secretary Khalid Mumtaz Advocate believed that the revision of contempt laws was aimed at making the corrupt powerful and to weaken the institution of judiciary. “The lawyers firmly believe in the constitution which makes every citizen of Pakistan equal before law, may he be the ruler or the ruled,” he said, asking the lawyers to join the protest and to attend the general body meetings called to discuss the further course of action.
Later the KBA members along with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, who had also addressed them earlier, staged a sit-in on MA Jinnah Road. They shouted slogans against the government, rejecting both the amendments in dual nationality and contempt of court laws.
In Sukkur
“The amendments in contempt laws are a mockery of the constitution and the law of the land,” Qurban Malano, the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) Sukkur secretary general, told The Express Tribune.
After the modifications in the law, the president, the prime minister and all ministers have been exempted from contempt-of-court proceedings.
Malano said that this was condemnable and the “black law will be resisted at every forum”.
Former secretary general, Shabbir Shar, also criticised the changes in contempt law, saying that it is an attempt to further discriminate between the rich and the poor. “If the rich are involved in contempt of court, they are exempted; whereas, the poor will be convicted,” he questioned.
He added that the revised law is in conflict with Article 25 of the Constitution, according to which all citizens are equal. “A particular political party is using parliament for its own vested interests,” Shar alleged.
Criticising the revision in the contempt law, Khairpur District Bar Association General Secretary Yasir Arafat asserted that the entire lawyer fraternity is against the changes, as this has made the law discriminatory.
In Hyderabad
The lawyer fraternity in the second largest city of the province also adhered to the strike call and boycotted court proceedings on Thursday to protest against the perceived threats to the independence and authority of the higher judiciary.
Advocate Zahoor Baloch, the SHCBA Hyderabad general secretary, led a protest rally of lawyers in the premises of the high court building.
The participants condemned the enactment of the 21st Constitutional Amendment terming it “tantamount to sapping the judiciary’s authority”.
The lawyers warned of reviving the movement witnessed after the deposition of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2007, if the perceived threats materialise.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2012.
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so great to see the lawyer fraternity united. obviously they don't need votes so they might as well speak for the rule of law and not spread hatred and sensationalism. way to go Sindh lawyers!