Traffic fines: Lawyers lock staff rooms in protest

New rules and transfers ordered after clerks accused of misappropriation.

LAHORE:

A group of lawyers expelled magistrate’s staff from their offices and then locked them for the day to protest against a new process for the payment of traffic fines on Tuesday.

More than 20 lawyers stormed the offices of staff of five magistrates at the district courts at around 11am. Staffers told The Express Tribune that the lawyers thrashed some of their colleagues when they did not immediately vacate the rooms. “They threatened us with dire consequences if we tried to open the offices,” one staff member said.

A source told The Express Tribune that the new procedure was introduced because magistrates’ staff had been accused of misappropriating the collected fines, sometimes in connivance with lawyers. The source said that the corrupt clerks had been transferred around a week ago, though they had paid representatives of the Lahore Bar Association Rs2.5 million to get the transfers reversed. The source said the protest was a reaction to the non-reversal of the transfers.

LBA General Secretary Kamran Bashir Mughal said that bar representatives had been offered money “through various channels” to seek to stop the transfers, but denied that the money had been accepted.

Asif Butt, a lawyer who took part in the protest, said that it was meant as a protest against the new method introduced by the district and sessions judge for the payment of fines, which he said was extremely inconvenient for citizens.

Previously, people could approach magistrate’s staff at the district courts and pay them their fines directly in order to get back their licences or ID cards, which the traffic warden confiscates when he issues the ticket. There was no need to appear before the magistrate in person to pay off the ticket.

The district and sessions judge issued an order to magistrates on February 21 detailing a new procedure prohibiting staff members from handling money or collecting fines. “Rather, fines shall be deposited in banks directly by the depositors, who will then present the receipt to the court,” reads the order.

“The presiding officer shall examine the receipt himself and make it part of the record. The deposit registers will be inspected by the senior-most judicial magistrate of the sub-division concerned. He will submit an inspection report to this office in the first week of every month.”

The new procedure was implemented from February 22.

Butt, the lawyer, said that the banks did not collect fines after 1pm, which made the new method extremely inconvenient. “It was much easier for them to pay the fine directly to court staffers,” he said.

Court staff said that they had informed the magistrates they worked for regarding the incident on Tuesday, and the magistrates had in turn discussed the matter with Senior Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Saeed Rafique.

Rafique, however, denied knowledge of the incident. He said he would look into the matter and discuss it with District and Sessions Judge Nazir Ahmed Ganjana.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2013.