Safety measures: ‘Lawyers must cooperate with police’

LAHORE: The Lahore Bar Association has said the Lahore district coordination officer and the operations deputy inspector general would be responsible for any untoward incidents at the lower courts due to lack of security.

Abdul Latif Hanjra, a former member of the Punjab Bar Council, said that lawyers must cooperate with the police and allow themselves to be searched before entering courts.

There are no separate cabins to frisk women at the Aiwan-i-Adl, Library gate and LDA gate and several women litigants have protested against being frisked in the open, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Razia Bibi, a litigant, said it was humiliating for women to submit to a body search in public. Naseem Akhtar, a police official at the Aiwan-i-Adl, said they had requested their in-charge to take up the matter. She said it was regrettable that they had to frisk women in front of men, “but what’s the alternative?”

Security Incharge Muhammad Imaz said he had requested the authorities, including the district and session judge, to provide search cabins.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2014.