LHC bench: Lawyers resume strike in five districts

Faisalabad bar president says lawyers might march towards Islamabad.

FAISALABAD:

Following the decision of the Joint Action Committee of lawyers in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal, lawyers resumed their boycott of courts on Monday to press their demands for Lahore High Court benches in their divisions.

Previously, lawyers had boycotted courts from January through April. They had then resumed the strike on May 16. It had continued till June 13. The government had set up a three-member committee comprising high court judges headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah to prepare a feasibility report. However, there has been no progress since then.

On Monday, lawyers in Faisalabad staged a protest demonstration at Kutchery Bazaar Chowk and vowed to continue their protest until an LHC bench was set up in the district.



District Bar Association President Mian Javaid Iqbal, also the Joint Action Committee chairman, told The Express Tribune that lawyers from the five districts had met at a convention in Sahiwal on October 2, where they had decided to boycott the courts after Eid.

He said lawyers had been betrayed by the Punjab government as well as the committee, who had promised LHC benches at the five districts. He said they (lawyers) had been told that the committee would prepare a feasibility report and assess infrastructure and other requirements. He regretted that the committee had done no work in this regard.

Iqbal said that lawyers from the five districts had decided to organise a long march from Gujranwala, to Islamabad. He said a final decision in this regard would be taken at a lawyers’ convention in Gujranwala on November 5.

“We might also boycott courts indefinitely, lock courts and restrain judges from performing their duties,” he warned. Meanwhile, litigants returned without any luck as lawyers refused to appear in courts.

Gulzar Ahmad Baloch, a litigant from Chak 219-RB, said that his case had been pending at the court for three years. If the situation persisted, he said, it seemed he would have to wait for another three years. Muhammad Hanif, another litigant, said that his son had been arrested in June by in a false case. He said his son’s post-arrest bail application had been pending for four months.

He said a court was scheduled to hear his case on Monday, but hearing had been adjourned for a week due to the lawyers’ strike.

“God knows how long it will take this time?” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.