Lawyers also condemned the registration of an FIR against their deceased colleagues by the culprit. PHOTO: ONLINE
RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: Twin cities’ lawyers organised protests, condolence references and boycotted court proceedings on Tuesday to condemn the killing of two of their colleagues in Sialkot a day earlier. Daska Bar Association President Rana Khalid Abbas and Advocate Irfan Chohan were killed when a clash broke out between lawyers and police officials in Daska on Monday.
Lawyers belonging to the Rawalpindi District Bar Association and Lahore High Court Bar Association (Rawalpindi Bench) observed complete boycott of court proceedings and demonstrated to protest the murder of their colleagues.
Protesting lawyers gathered at Katcheri Chowk in Rawalpindi and blocked the road for all kinds of traffic. They chanted slogans against the Punjab Police and demanded of the government to award exemplary punishment to the culprits.
Rawalpindi District Bar Association’s former general secretary Malik Zaheer said state machinery was used to kill lawyers.
“We are being punished for our struggle for the cause of an independent judiciary,” he said. “It was a good example of state-sponsored terrorism against its own people,” Arshad said.
The bar’s current president, GM Shah, who led the protest, demanded that the SHO should be tried in a military court.
“We demand that exemplary punishment should be given to the police officer who killed innocent and unarmed lawyers,” he said.
Shah said it should be investigated why the police officer resorted to firing and whether he was ordered to so by seniors. The lawyers also condemned registration of FIR against their deceased colleagues by the culprit.
Meanwhile, at the Islamabad High Court, Chief Justice Anwar Khan Kasi along with Justices Noorul Haq Qureshi, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, Athar Minallah and Aamer Farooq attended a condolence reference organised by the IHC Bar Association to express solidarity with those killed.
Justice Kasi said the bench was with the lawyers at this moment of grief.
Due to the strike called by the Pakistan Bar Council, almost no legal proceedings took place at the IHC, district as well as the anti-terrorism courts except for a few urgent cases.
Members of local bar associations requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take a suo motu notice of the case and demanded the resignation of the Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada and Punjab IGP Mushtaq Sukhera.
The Islamabad Bar Council, IHCBA and Islamabad Bar Association have also announced a full-day strike on Wednesday (today).
Litigants were seen facing difficulties at the courts due to the strike.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2015.
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