Proceedings halted: Lawyers call another strike over assault

KARACHI: The lawyers community has called a strike once again to protest the police assault against the lawyers of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) at the bar room at City Courts since the police officers guilty of the assault have yet to be taken under arrest. The KBA announced the strike against the officers of Madina police station after they barged into the bar room to arrest a suspect and assaulted the lawyers that were present at the time. The suspect had been given bail-before arrest by a district and sessions court in a murder case on July 4. However, when he failed to furnish surety after getting bail from the court and his lawyers took him to the KBA office to avoid arrest. Following the incident, KBA vice-president Zahooruddin announced a boycott of all legal proceedings against the non-arrest of the culprits. He said that despite the registration of a case against the policemen, neither an arrest nor any other departmental action has been taken against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2014.