Forbidden glass: Lawyers beat cop for ‘using their glass’

A lawyer’s son says policeman was beaten for using lawyers’ chair

LAHORE: A group of lawyers on Thursday roughed up a sub-inspector for using a lawyer’s glass at the Lahore High Court Bar Association’s cafeteria.

They allegedly snatched two cell phones and a case file from Liaquat Ali, a sub-inspector from Nankana Sahib. The police official had come to the court to appear in a bail matter. After the hearing, he had gone to the cafeteria to drink water.

A witness said the lawyers started beating the policeman as soon as he picked a glass and a jug from the table usually used by lawyers from the Save Judiciary Committee, headed by Advocate Abdul Rasheed Qureshi.

“They slapped him in the face and dragged him,” said the witness. They later pushed him out of bar premises.

Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi, son of Advocate Abdul Rasheed Qureshi, told The Express Tribune that the police official was sitting on a chair designated for lawyers. “When my father asked him to leave the chair, the cop misbehaved with him. My father slapped him. Many other lawyers then started beating him.”

He said lawyers had requested the bar secretary to ban police officials from entering the premises.

On Wednesday, a group of lawyers had beaten up a young man after he had accidentally hit a lawyer with his car near the Election Commission’s office.

Faizul Hassan and his mother were driving past the office when they hit the lawyer. The lawyer and some of his colleagues then beat up the driver. “They pushed me aside and continued beating my son,” his mother had reported.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2015.