Those who fight for others’ rights, struggle for their own

Over 40 lawyers have been killed in Sindh since 2007, claims association.

KARACHI: With legally-empowered tongues, the black coats fight jurists every day. They slash their opponent - no matter how influential - to get justice for their clients. Unfortunately for the lawyers themselves, justice seems to be a farce dream.

Over 40 lawyers have been killed in Sindh since 2007, a majority of them in Karachi. “Lawyers, engineers and doctors are the cream of any society but it’s very unfortunate that they’re not safe, and anyone can be targeted and killed at any time,” said Naseerul Hasan, a cousin of recently murdered lawyer Kausar Saqlain. Before Saqlain, three of his senior colleagues, M.M. Tariq, Shakil Ahmed Bangash and Muhammad Imranul Haq Qureshi, also lost their lives in the same manner earlier this year. According to the Sindh Bar Council (SBC), at least 27 lawyers have been killed across the province since January 2011, but the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) estimates the death toll is 33.

Motives

There might be contradictions in the figures, but one fact is clear that not a single conviction has come in any case so far. Police investigators usually describe the lawyers’ killings as a result of sectarian conflicts or personal disputes.

But the legal fraternity is not convinced. “Every political and religious group has its people in our profession and they plead the cases of their respective parties,” pointed out KBA former president Mehmoodul Hasan. “But it does not mean that a lawyer should be targeted for such reasons. This is no justification to kill a lawyer.” Others say it’s failure on the part of the police. “Not a single culprit has been arrested since 2011 and the motives have never been unearthed,” Muhammad Aqil, the vice chairperson of the SBC, told The Express Tribune. “All the murder cases were lodged against unknown culprits and the police found no clues so they put all the cases into the cold storage and declared them ‘untraced’.”

Fleeing fraternity

Whatever the reason may be behind the killings, there is a wave of shock and fear among the community. Several lawyers admitted that some of their colleagues have relocated and preferred to seek asylum in other countries than live under a constant state of fear. Among them are those who were pleading the state’s cases against the members of banned militant outfits.

Compensation

With no conviction so far, only thing that the victims’ families demand is the state provide compensation. After the SBC took the matter up in the Supreme Court during a hearing of the Karachi law and order suo motu implementation case in 2011, the federal and provincial governments paid Rs800,000 compensation each to the families of 19 slain lawyers. The lawyers lashed out at the previous coalition government for its inaction against the killers as they felt that attacks on the legal fraternity rose during the previous tenure. “The state’s writ does not exist at all,” claimed Hasan. “It’s imperative to establish the state writ to bring an end to targeted killings in which not only the lawyers but innocent citizens suffer heavily.”

Hasan felt that if the government continued to follow the path of compromises, then innocent people from all walks of the society will suffer.

Bar association goes to court

The Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday against the continuous killings of its members in targeted attacks in the province, mainly Karachi. “From the year 2007 onwards, more than 40 lawyers have been assassinated in targeted killings in Karachi,” said SHCBA president Mustafa Lakhani, in the plea.

Citing the federal interior secretary, Sindh home secretary and the chiefs of the police and Rangers as respondents, they pleaded the court direct the authorities to inquire into these killings and take preventive measures to stop them. They also asked the court to implement death sentences awarded by courts.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2013.