Raking up old issue: Lawyers stage dharna outside SC
Protesting lawyers turned violent when police used batons to smash the sit-in which began around 9am.
Lawyers run for cover as policemen swung their batons outside the SC building. PHOTO: ONLINE
ISLAMABAD:
On the day the top court was hearing the missing persons’ case in Lahore, hundreds of lawyers staged a dharna (sit-in) outside the Supreme Court building in the federal capital.
Lawyers from the district bar associations of five cities took part in the dharna. They turned violent when police used batons to smash the sit-in which began around 9am.
The protesting lawyers were demanding the establishment of high court benches in five cities of Punjab, namely, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Chanting slogans, the lawyers blocked the judges’ exit gate. Police, however, fired teargas canisters and used batons when the protesters forced their way into the court building.
In the melee at least 14 people, including the Islamabad assistant commissioner, Muhammad Ali, and DSP Sheikh Zubair, were injured. The protesters threw stones at the building, breaking several windows. For five long hours, traffic remained suspended on a large swathe of the Constitution Avenue.
A spokesperson for the apex court told The Express Tribune that someone was instigating and funding the protesting lawyers to malign the institution in the public eye. He also questioned the timing of the protest, saying that an old issue was taken up just a few days before the retirement of the chief justice.
In a press statement, the apex body of lawyers, Pakistan Bar Council, condemned the police action. The PBC vice chairman, Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, termed it “police accesses against the lawyers”.
“While strongly condemning the brutal police force against the peaceful lawyers, he has requested members of the legal fraternity throughout Pakistan to observe strike and boycott the courts on Wednesday to protest against the inhuman and brutal police action against the lawyers,” added a press release issued by the PBC.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2013.
On the day the top court was hearing the missing persons’ case in Lahore, hundreds of lawyers staged a dharna (sit-in) outside the Supreme Court building in the federal capital.
Lawyers from the district bar associations of five cities took part in the dharna. They turned violent when police used batons to smash the sit-in which began around 9am.
The protesting lawyers were demanding the establishment of high court benches in five cities of Punjab, namely, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Chanting slogans, the lawyers blocked the judges’ exit gate. Police, however, fired teargas canisters and used batons when the protesters forced their way into the court building.
In the melee at least 14 people, including the Islamabad assistant commissioner, Muhammad Ali, and DSP Sheikh Zubair, were injured. The protesters threw stones at the building, breaking several windows. For five long hours, traffic remained suspended on a large swathe of the Constitution Avenue.
A spokesperson for the apex court told The Express Tribune that someone was instigating and funding the protesting lawyers to malign the institution in the public eye. He also questioned the timing of the protest, saying that an old issue was taken up just a few days before the retirement of the chief justice.
In a press statement, the apex body of lawyers, Pakistan Bar Council, condemned the police action. The PBC vice chairman, Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, termed it “police accesses against the lawyers”.
“While strongly condemning the brutal police force against the peaceful lawyers, he has requested members of the legal fraternity throughout Pakistan to observe strike and boycott the courts on Wednesday to protest against the inhuman and brutal police action against the lawyers,” added a press release issued by the PBC.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2013.