Judges security: Lawyers reject suggestion to shift SHC parking to Saddar

Criticise the chief secretary’s lack of concern about the lawyers’ security.

KARACHI: The legal fraternity, expressing concern for security of the judges, has rejected the idea of shifting the high court’s parking to the Saddar car parking plaza.

The Sindh chief secretary had proposed shifting the high court’s parking to Saddar as part of the security plan for the judges and the courts following last month’s bomb blast at the convoy of a senior judge while killed nine people. A suggestion had been put forward to start shuttle services between the Saddar parking plaza and the high court for convenience of the lawyers. The SHC Bar Association, however, said that such a move would expose lawyers to security risks.



“This suggestion of the chief secretary is not acceptable to this association as the Saddar car parking plaza is not safe - there is firing in that area at least twice a week and many innocent people have been killed,” association’s president Mustafa Lakhani told an emergency meeting of the members.

The body expressed their difficulty in understanding the chief secretary’s concern about the judges’ security but not the lawyers.

“The chief secretary and security officials in order to hide their inefficiency, incompetence and corruption have been suggesting to put the lawyers in jeopardy without realising that it is their duty to provide security to the lawyers, who are also part and parcel of the judiciary. This association considers the lives of lawyers as valuable as of the learned judges,” he said.



The association noted with concern that the Saddar car parking plaza and its surroundings were not a safe place for the lawyers to park their vehicles and travel in the shuttle service to the high court.

The association instead demanded that the Passport Office situated outside the high court’s building be shifted to some other place and the office’s plot be converted into parking lot for the advocates.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2013.