The clash between lawyers and judges turned into one between lawyers and the police after charged lawyers insisted on taking out a rally, despite the imposition of Section 144 on The Mall.
Large contingents of police that had started deployment early Friday morning used tear gas, baton charge and brick-bats to stop lawyers of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA). Dozens of lawyers were injured in a confrontation that also left three policemen wounded.
The police arrested more than 100 lawyers on Friday after a thorough search of Aiwan-e-Adal courts, bar room, library, lawyers’ chambers and canteen. Police personnel also ransacked the bar room, damaging its furniture and breaking window panes.
The clashes started after a general house meeting when the lawyers decided to take out a protest rally led by LBA’s senior vice president Lubna Mahmood. The police teams deployed outside Aiwan-e-Adal forced the lawyers back inside the gate. After the initial scuffle, the lawyers started hurling bricks and bottles at the police, injuring three men.
The police responded by hurling tear gas shells into the court complex and an indiscriminate baton charge. The lawyers retreated back inside and the police did not follow them, returning to their positions outside the courts.
After about half an hour, a group of charged lawyers tried to take out a rally again, hurling stones at the police. They also tore down the walkthrough gate on the premises. This time the police entered the Aiwan-e-Adal and conducted a thorough search and arrested as many lawyers as they could.
During the course of making arrests, police beat up several lawyers. A library worker was also injured after he refused to let the police enter the library.
Earlier the LBA president Sajid Bashir addressed the bar members over telephone from his lock up at the Manga Mandi police station. He said that the lawyers would continue to protest until their demands were accepted. After the confrontation at Aiwan-e-Adal, some lawyers at the Lahore High Court tried to make their way to the court of the chief justice while chanting slogans but were stopped by the police.
Later in the day, a group of lawyers led by the Lahore High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Quddus met with Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif. According to Quddus, the chief justice condemned the confrontation. He said that the chief justice told the inspector general of police to release all the arrested lawyers.
After Justice Sharif left his court room, another delegation of lawyers met with Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, the puisne senior most judge of the Lahore High Court. However, LBA members said that they did not recognise the contacts.
A joint press conference was held by Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) member Kazim Khan, Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) vice chairman Mumtaz Mustafa, LBA secretary Qasim Buttar and some other lawyers. Kazim Khan said that he could not understand why the district and sessions judge had not been transferred so far. He added that the PBC was with the lawyers and also announced a boycott by lawyers throughout the country on Monday. The PbBC vice chairman also announced that they would boycott court proceedings on Monday. He said that he would lodge FIRs against police officials for beating the lawyers.
Published in The Express Tribune October 2nd, 2010.
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