Seeking courts’ relocation: Black coats take to the streets again

Block Constitution Avenue for hours, vow to continue protest till demands met.

ISLAMABAD:

Knowing the weather, they came armed with umbrellas. They were at the right place at the right time to voice their concerns.

The lawyers Monday held a protest on the Constitution Avenue against the government for failing to shift Islamabad District Courts to the new building, mishandling the F-8 suicide-and-gun attack and offering insufficient compensation to the affected people.

After the March 3 attack, the lawyers had pushed the government to shift the courts to its original building in Sector G-10, which currently houses the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

It may be noted that last week lawyers had rejected the administration’s proposal to shift courts to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) building.

Lawyers in their hundreds assembled on the call of Islamabad District Bar Association (IDBA).

Majority of them first attended the proceedings of Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) regarding the incident and later joined protest. They stayed on the avenue till late in the afternoon.

“Our demand is to shift the courts in our building in G-10,” said IDBA President Naseer Ahmed Kayani. They demanded that cases should be registered against Islamabad Inspector General Police and Senior Superintendent of Police for the alleged mishandling of the F-8 incident. They claimed that compensation money paid to families of the victims was not enough.

The protesters also claimed that police statements about the number of assailants were misleading and objected to Interior Minister’s statement about Judge Rafaqat Awan being killed by his own guard.

Protest will continue

In the afternoon, lawyers held a meeting with Minister for Information Pervez Rashid and called off the protest for the day but, according to IDBA President, the protest will continue till all demands are accepted adding that they will decide their future strategy in their meeting on March 26.

The Minister reportedly assured that Rangers personnel will be stationed at the courts to ensure security for lawyers.

People suffer

Dramatic scenes were witnessed in the most sensitive part of the capital that houses the country’s most important installations including the Supreme Court and Parliament building.

The Police closed the gates of Parliament House and sealed entry and exit routes to the Red Zone.

A session of the National Assembly was to begin at 4pm but access to the area was difficult given the protests.

At least an important parliamentary committee meeting – the House Advisory Committee – had been cancelled.

Supreme Court hearing

Earlier, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Kamran Murtaza and Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) President Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani appeared before the two-judge bench, headed by Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and stated that despite the March 3 incident, the security arrangements in the district courts were not satisfactory.

Upon this, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sajid Ilyas Bhatti said that he will ensure that proper security measures are in place to avoid any such incident in future.

Regarding the shifting of the courts, IHCBA President Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani told the bench that the PC-1 has just been submitted. On the other hand, a representative of interior ministry submitted that the government had proposed five places but the lawyers’ rejected all of them.

SC directed the DAG to look into the matter and submit report within 10 days.

SCBA President Kamran Murtaza informed that the commission constituted to probe into the terrorist incident has still not submitted its report. He requested the bench to adjourn the matter till the submission of the report.

It may be noted that one-member commission comprising IHC judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui is probing the terrorist incident of F-8 Ketcheri.

About the compensation money, SCBA president said the sum of Rs500, 000 is too meagre to heal the wounds of the aggrieved.

The court adjourned for ten days.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2014.