The new Frankenstein

Since the success of the lawyers’ movement, in forcing the Zardari government to restore the Chief Justice of Pakistan confirmed its formidable street power, many ‘advocates’ of the law, particularly those associated with the Lahore Bar, have steadily reversed social evolution descending from “honourable members of the Bar” into a vicious mob of black coated “goons”.

That’s the term used by a senior legal figure who fathered the lawyers’ movement, now watching with dismay as a mass of Lahore’s lawyers resort to violent street protests, effigy burning and sloganeering against the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice in a dispute over a judge’s transfer.

Last week’s ambush and vandalisation of the LHC Chief Justice’s courtroom has removed any doubt that these lawyers will misuse their street power to achieve their own parochial agendas, employing mob tactics to intimidate, harass and bully any party, and even judges, police officers, journalists or other lawyers. “Wukla-gurdi” has racked up a disgraceful charge sheet of thuggery: in August 2009 lawyers slapped and humiliated a police officer after he gave testimony in a Lahore court case; the next day they beat up the cameraman and journalist who had captured that assault and aired it; in January 2010, 12-year-old Shazia Masih, the maid of a former head of the Lahore Bar Association was found dead at his home, with 17 injuries of a brutal nature, prima facie evidence of wrongful death.

Three hundred lawyers from the powerful Lahore Bar Association took to the streets in support of the accused, threatening to “burn alive” any lawyer who dared to represent Shazia’s family in the case; in July 2010 the chief of the Lahore Bar Association led lawyers to storm the court of a district and sessions judge where they manhandled the judge, locked him out of his own court and even pelted judicial officers who arrived to negotiate. Incidents of intimidating, threatening and beating media personnel are too numerous to list.

In recent days, the Lower Mall, one of Lahore’s main roads, has been the scene of running battles between the police and lawyers. Most shocking were two vicious assaults by the black coats on policemen. Both police officers were unarmed, unprotected, and seated alone in police vehicles when a pack of lawyers mercilessly punched and beat them with shoes, smashing the vehicle windows. One officer was pulled to the ground with lawyers stomping full force on his face and chest. The other policeman managed to remain in his vehicle but was pummelled in his face, blood pouring from his eye. He was probably saved from further grievous harm by the presence of multiple cameramen capturing the attack up close.

There is no justification or even mitigation for these shameful attacks. The Punjab police are known for their excesses and the ruling PML-N does not desist from using police brutality against its political opponents, but even so, no one, especially those who have sworn to uphold and the legal system, is entitled to use street justice. Lawyers are required to uphold a higher standard of behaviour. The superior judiciary must prove its impartiality in dealing with lawyers who have been instrumental in its restoration. It must take notice of these two brutal assaults on the police with the same zeal it has shown in summoning officials to answer complaints of police brutality. The culpable lawyers, easily identifiable in the footage, must be disbarred and face criminal punishment. They must never practice law again. Not only have they committed crimes of violence, they have breached their own professional code of conduct, bringing the legal profession into disrepute and dishonour.

This powerful lawyers’ faction has become the latest Frankenstein of our society, terrorising, mauling and attacking anyone who reveals its ugly face, displeases it or seeks to discipline it. High on power, it has turned against its superiors, the bench and senior Bar, undermining the very institution it claims to honour, the system of law and justice, abandoning reason for passion, choosing the street rather than the system, employing muscle over the merit of argument, to achieve its agenda.  The guardians of the law now hold it hostage — in their own internecine conflicts.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2010.