LAHORE/FAISALABAD: The Punjab Bar Council (PBC) issued a strike call on Sunday when police subjected journalists and protesters to violence on the orders of the government.
Lahore Bar Association (LBA) and Faisalabad Bar Association (FBA) officials said on Sunday that lawyers would observe a strike on Monday against police violence on journalists.
Advocate Asif Chattha said the LBA will be observing a strike after the PBC issued the strike call. He said the legal community believed that a conspiracy had been hatched to derail democracy. They said concrete steps should be taken to resolve the political impasse. Chattha said journalists had been subjected to violence without justification. He said protesters had staged peaceful sit-ins in Islamabad for 12 days. Chattha said innocent people had been killed and called it a bad omen. They said it had set a bad precedent.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, LBA Vice-President Ghulam Abbas Sahir condemned the incident. Sahir said political differences should be resolved through negotiations. He said the government should not have resorted to use of force to intimidate protesters.
Sahir said lawyers will observe a strike and boycott court proceedings to register their protest against the police action. He said there was no need to impose martial law in Pakistan. Sahir said politicians should avoid making hasty decisions to resolve the political impasse to avert military intervention in politics. He said Pakistan was being ridiculed internationally. Sahir said the stances of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek lacked flexibility.
Separately, FBA President Tanveerur Rehman Randhawa said the government was using police to silence journalists.
He said use of such tactics showed that the government had failed. Randhawa said the police assault on workers of some television channels was pre-meditated.
He also said the government should resolve differences with the opposition through negotiations. Randhawa said the police action had set a bad precedent. He said the action had tarnished Pakistan’s image abroad. Randhawa said the government’s rigidity had caused immense loss to the economy.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2014.
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