KARACHI: City lawyers stay away from court proceedings
By Tahir Siddiqui
KARACHI, April 16: Lawyers boycotted the court proceedings on Wednesday in protest against the killing of their colleague on Tuesday.
They held protest meetings in the Sindh High Court and the City Courts, condemning the murder of Ashraf Ali Rajput on the premises of the Sindh High Court.
At the City Courts, hundreds of lawyers, led by the leaders of the Pakistan Bar Council, the Sindh Bar Council, the Sindh High Court Bar Association and the Karachi Bar Association, marched through the corridors of the building around 11am, and urged the government to take effective measures to provide protection to life and property of the people.
Ashraf Rajput was killed when two police officials opened fire in the court of Justice Zawwar Hussain Jafferi. The attackers wanted to kill Pir Mantab Ali Shah, an under-trial prisoner in a murder case due to a dispute between two groups over the possession of Lowari Sharif shrine in Badin.
The lawyers chanted slogans against the government and later gathered at the Shuhda-i-Punjab Hall and attended a general body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association.
Those who spoke included KBA president, Mohammed Ali Abbasi, general secretary, Sathi Ishaq, president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Muneer A. Malik, vice chairman of the Sindh Bar Council, Yaseen Azad, Zia Awan, Abdullah Chandio, Mohammed Aqil and Mustafa Lakhani.
The speakers demanded that the murder case of the lawyer be tried in an anti-terrorism court. They also demanded payment of Rs1 million to the deceased’s family.
The KBA general body also resolved that no member lawyer would appear for the defence of the killers of the advocate.
The City Courts buildings wore a deserted as small groups of lawyers visited the judges and requested them to suspend the court proceedings.
At the Sindh High Court, an emergent meeting of the Sindh Bar Council was held which termed it a “pre-meditated, intentional and calculated murder”.
The SBC said that the murder of a lawyer in the courtroom was an assault on the sanctity of court and amounts to deliberately violating the independence of judiciary and meant to cause “incalculable” harm to the institution.
The council appreciated the extraordinary courage and bravery shown by the SHC guard, who played a major role in the arrest of the suspected assailants.
The council called upon the investigating authorities to bring the culprits to justice and further requested the advocate- general to direct and lead the prosecution so that the culprits may be suitably and promptly punished.
The council also called upon the government and the chief justice to subject the police, the law-enforcement personnel and the litigants to a thorough check and no one be allowed with weapons inside the high court compound.
The proceedings at the high court were also partially suspended as judges did not hold courts and took up certain matters in their chambers.
Sathi Ishaq told Dawn that the lawyers at the City Courts did not attend the court proceedings though a few others did make their appearances in the high court.
Eye-witnesses said a very limited number of litigants, witnesses, paralegal staff and investigation officers turned up at the City Courts and they left the premises, as even the stamp- venders joined the lawyers in their boycott. Similarly, under-trial prisoners were not brought to the City Court from the prisons.
A scene was reportedly created at the court of an additional district and sessions judge, West, when she refused a group of protesting lawyers to suspend the court proceedings. However, the situation was brought under control on the intervention of some senior lawyers.
