The ‘me’ generation: Lawyers lock up sessions judge for not hearing case

The judge was busy performing duties as a returning officer, lawyers demand his removal.

RAWALPINDI:

Junior lawyers from the Rawalpindi Bar Association locked a district and sessions judge inside a courtroom for over an hour after exchanging harsh words with him on Monday.

On Friday, lawyer Hasnain Chauhan had asked Judge Muhammad Aslam Gondal to hear his case, citing the weekend, but the judge, who is also the returning officer for NA-52, postponed the hearing till Monday so that he could handle the submission of nomination papers for the upcoming general elections.

“Today, the judge kept me waiting for three hours before postponing the hearing again, saying he is busy and could not hear it today,” Chauhan said.

The postponement infuriated junior lawyers present there who locked the judge inside the courtroom. The judge later got out using the back door of the room. The lawyers then started protesting and refused to appear before any judges while demanding that Judge Gondal be shifted.

The locked door was opened four hours later after dialogue between Sessions Judge Maroof Ali and Rawalpindi Bar President Malik Arshad.

The lawyers demand that the judge be removed was turned down by Judge Ali, who flatly explained that a returning officer cannot be removed till the elections are over.

Last Wednesday, hundreds of lawyers stormed Jinnah Park after two of their colleagues were ‘offended’ by the quality of service at a restaurant in the park. Retaurant staff claimed the two lawyers were drunk, using foul language and misbehaving with waiters before they were thrown out.

The mob of lawyers broke flower pots and window panes in addition to manhandling the park’s gatekeepers. Oddly, FIRs were only lodged against restaurant staff members.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2013.