‘Institutional clash’: Lawyers protest after clash with police

Demand that the DPO be immediately transferred.

BAHAWALPUR:

Scores of Rahim Yar Khan Bar Association members protested here on Wednesday following a scuffle between some lawyers and policemen.

The scuffle had started following an argument between a senior lawyer and a policeman over pickets set up in front of the court.

The pickets had been set up to divert traffic away from the office of the district police officer, where candidate were taking tests for recruitment.

The protesting lawyers blocked the road in front of the DPO’s office and shouted slogans against District Police Officer Sohail Zafar Chattha for allegedly ordering the police to attack the lawyers. They said they would present proof regarding their claim before the Lahore High Court chief justice.

They said that police had set up pickets in front of the court without seeking permission from the court, causing a traffic jam in front of the court.



They said when former Punjab Bar Council vice chairman Raees Mustafa left court premises in his car, he got stuck in traffic. This, he said, led to an argument between him and the police officer in charge at the picket. The protesting lawyers said that the policemen abused Mustafa and beat him up. Seeing this, they said, dozens of lawyers in a clash with the police.

The protesters demanded that the DPO be transferred.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Advocate Habib Ahmad Paras said that all bar association in the region had announced boycott of courts till the DPO was transferred elsewhere.

Police said that Advocate Mustafa had started the argument and pushed a police officer. They said some of the lawyers had snatched a stick and a pistol from the police.

They said the pickets were later removed on the orders of District and Sessions Judge Syed Mehboob Qadir Shah, but the lawyers continued their protest.

They said when Investigation SP Tanveer Hussain Tunnio arrived at the scene, some lawyers attacked his car with sticks. The SP was escorted away from the court premises by some police officials, they said.



Separately, Bar Association members in Ahmedpur East also observed a strike to protest the alleged maltreatment of lawyers in Rahim Yar Khan.

They expressed solidarity with the lawyers and demanded that the DPO be transferred immediately. Bar Association president Nazar Hussain Aslam said that despite the fact that a district and sessions judge had taken notice of the incident and ordered the police to remove the pickets from in front of the court, the police had not registered a case against the policemen for attacking a senior lawyer.

Talking to The Express Tribune, DPO Chattha denied the allegation. He said he did not want an institutional clash and hence had directed the police to register an FIR against him.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.