Solidarity: ‘An attack on lawyers is an attack on justice’

Bar Association president says lawyers would now sit-in in front of the Lahore High Court.

FAISALABAD:

Lawyers in the Faisalabad division observed a strike here on Wednesday on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council and the Punjab Bar Council.

The protesting lawyers said an attack on lawyers was an attack on justice.

They shouted slogans against the beating of protesting lawyers by the police in front of the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Lawyers from the Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions were demonstrating to press their demand for setting up Lahore High Court benches in their divisions.

The Wednesday’s protest was led by Faisalabad District Bar Association president Mian Javaid Iqbal. He said the lawyers had been striving for the LHC benches for the last three years, but had received only “hollow promises”.

“The government has been delaying the matter with ever new excuses,” he said.

He said the lawyers had been protesting on-and-off in their divisions. They had brought their week-long strikes to two days a week because they did not want the litigants to suffer.

He said the government had given them assurances several times, but backed out every time. He said these delaying tactics forced the lawyers to march to Islamabad.

He said the lawyers were attacked unlawfully.

“They were staging a peaceful demonstration in front of the Supreme Court, when the police brutally attacked them with batons. Several lawyers, including some senior ones, were injured,” he said.

Calling the attack on lawyers a “vicious act”, the District Bar Association president said such tactics would not stop the lawyers from demanding their rights.

Iqbal said the lawyers would next hold a sit-in in front of the Lahore High Court.

‘Sorry, no justice these days’

Visitors at the courts faced a great deal of difficulties as lawyers’ strike in Faisalabad entered its third day on Wednesday.

Muhammad Zeeshan, a litigant, told The Express Tribune that he had filed a bail application for his brother, who was accused of theft.

He said the court had fixed November 25 for the hearing, but the hearing had to be adjourned twice due to the lawyers’ strike.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2013.