Reactive lawyers: Proceedings remain at standstill as legal fraternity stages protest

Members of different associations of tribunals and courts also poured in to show support.

KARACHI:

Judicial work saw no activity on Saturday, a working day for the legal fraternity, as a large number of lawyers boycotted proceedings at the subordinate courts across the city to protest the manhandling of their colleagues by the police.

The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) had called for a city-wide strike against the mistreatment of its members by the Madina Colony police, who had barged into the bar room to arrest a murder suspect hiding there. The suspect had been granted bail but could not afford the surety amount immediately and was taking refuge in the bar room to avoid being arrested again.

In response to the ill-treatment, the members of the KBA and Malir Bar Association staged a strike, and members of different associations of tribunals and courts also poured in.

They stayed away from the courts in unison. Resultantly, thousands of cases fixed for the day could not be heard at the city courts, the Malir district courts, the special courts and the tribunals. A large number of litigants and under-trial prisoners faced inconvenience as there were no lawyers to present and defend their cases. The prisoners had to be taken back to their barracks without being produced before the court.

Terrorism trials

Prosecutors told The Express Tribune that the proceedings in dozens of trials could not be conducted at the anti-terrorism courts, as the defense lawyers stayed away from the courtrooms.

“The police returned the witnesses while the suspects were also shifted back to the prisons, as they could not be produced in any single case,” they added, citing that the hearing of these cases would now take days to be rescheduled.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2014.