Lawyers attacked the SP in SSP office in Islamabad.
The clash between lawyers and the police entered its second day on Tuesday. Members of several lawyers’ associations protested against the non-registration of two FIRs they had sought against police officials, “despite court orders”.
Following a scuffle on Monday, in which a group of lawyers had smeared black shoe polish on a police inspector’s face besides beating him, the Islampura police registered an FIR against seven nominated and nine unidentified lawyers under several sections including Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act.
For their part, Punjab Bar Council member Babar Waheed and several other lawyers filed an application in a court on Tuesday seeking the registration of two cases against police officials for thrashing them and abducting two other lawyers.
More than a hundred lawyers, led by Advocate Waheed, assembled in District and Sessions Judge Hamid Hussain Shah’s court room and chanted slogans against the police officials. They banged fists on the rostrum and tables demanding the cancellation of the case against lawyers. They also asked the court to order the registration of two cases against police officials under Section 7 of the ATA for misconduct, and thrashing and abducting two lawyers.
Judge Hamid Hussain Shah ordered the police to register the cases. Later during the day, the lawyers requested copies of the FIRs, but the judge told them that he had only passed orders for their registration.
Upon further protest by the lawyers, the judge said he had told police to produce copies of the FIRs. After an hour of waiting for the copies, the lawyers began to protest again. Some of them then approached a group of 30 police officials deployed on the court premises, and threatened to beat them up if the FIRs were not produced.
The lawyers also told Islampura DSP Shamsul Haq Durrani to remove the policemen from the court or they would beat them up. However, the policemen remained in front of the court building.
A source privy to the matter said City SP Imtiaz Sarwar had told Lahore Bar Association President Chaudhary Ishtiaq that he would not register terrorism cases against police officials, “as the lawyers had made up the story”. He said that Judge Hamid Hussain Shah had requested the lawyers to move an application before the Lahore High Court chief justice if the police did not register the FIRs. He said the application had been submitted.
SP Sarwar told The Express Tribune that they had not received an application for the registration of cases against police officials. When asked whether he would register the cases under Section 7 of the ATA, he said that the police would first investigate the matter.
The group of lawyers including Ishtiaq, LBA general secretary Saleem Ladhi and Advocate Waheed, called a meeting at the Aiwan-i-Adl. They said they would not support the judges in the future if the judges did not support them in this matter. They said they would launch protest demonstrations from Wednesday if the case against the lawyers was not cancelled and the two cases against policemen remained unregistered. They took out a rally from Aiwan-i-Adl to PMG Chowk.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2014.
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