Lawyers’ boycott: LHC issues notices to bar councils

Judicial work has been affected due to lawyer strikes and poor litigants had suffered, said petitioner.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Chief Justice on Thursday again issued notices to the Pakistan Bar Council and the Punjab Bar Council regarding a petition against the lawyers’ boycott of court proceedings. Barrister Iqbal Jafri stated in the petition that judicial work had been affected due to lawyer strikes and poor litigants had suffered. Jafri said the lawyers had also misbehaved with judges during the strikes and pressured them to end judicial work. Jafri said the Indian Supreme Court had banned the lawyers’ boycott of court proceedings in 2003 and there had been no strike since then. He said references had been forwarded to bar councils against the lawyers involved in such incidents in India and the councils had suspended their licenses. Jafri said a lawyers’ strike amounted to an assault on justice. He asked the court to direct the lawyers’ bodies to end the strikes. Since no one had appeared on behalf of the bar councils and associations, the court reissued notices to them and adjourned the hearing until January 28.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2014.