Court clerk thrashed

KARACHI: A clerk of the sessions court Malir landed in a hospital on Friday after he was assaulted by lawyers. The employees of the Malir District Courts announced that they would stage a strike today (Saturday) to protest against the incident, however, the district and sessions judge Malir managed to convince both sides to reconcile, resulting in the withdrawal of the strike call.

The incident began when Additional District and Sessions Judge Malir Shahid Shafique approved the bail of a defendant against a surety of Rs50,000 and his counsel submitted the documents of his car in the court.

The court ordered the office clerk, Mohammad Salim, to check the car documents and submit a report.

The clerk stated in his report that the car was a Suzuki FX model 1987 and was worth Rs50,000.

The counsel of the defendant told the court that the car was worth Rs70,000 and the clerk demanded a bribe of Rs5,000 for a correct report.

Later in the day, the clerk was attacked by some lawyers, who complained to the District and Sessions Judge Malir Hassan Feroze that the clerk had misguided the court. The judge assured then that action would be taken against the clerk. However, the judge was annoyed when he saw the clerk in an injured state, and said there was no need to reprimand the clerk since the lawyers has taken the law into their own hands.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2010.