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| 16 May 2004 | Sunday | 25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Judges, lawyers resume work
LAHORE, May 15: The situation at the city's sessions courts seemed returning to normal on Saturday when members of the subordinate judiciary resumed work and lawyers chose not to confront the police deployed near the court building.
Almost all the additional sessions judges, civil judges and judicial magistrates returned to work, making a U-turn from their response to the lawyers' agitation on Friday that culminated in their en bloc resignations.
Some lawyers also appeared for their cases in various courts.
Sources said several behind-the-scene moves had helped to improve the situation. It is believed that Lahore High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry had played a key role in conflict resolution.
The CJ did not intervene directly. But a word on his behalf is understood to have sent home a message to the subordinate judiciary that their extreme step was hardly warranted.
The effectiveness of the CJ's message can be gauged from the fact that the judges and judicial magistrates on Saturday denied having tendered their resignations, saying there was no record of their resignations. All of the judges and magistrates arrived in their courts rather earlier on Saturday.
Some 112 members of the subordinate judiciary had on Friday submitted their resignations to District and Sessions Judge Khalil Ahmad Chaudhry. However, the DSJ did not forward the resignations to the high court.
As for the Lahore Bar Association, its leadership chose to continue a low-key agitation. It shifted its protest camp from the sessions courts to the Aiwan-i-Adl as a goodwill gesture. LBA president Mirza Haneef Baig and other office-bearers adopted a conciliatory tone at a news conference held in the morning. They said they had complete confidence in the person of the chief justice, saying that lawyers held the bench-bar relation in the highest esteem.
However, the LBA was not prepared to make compromise on it demand for the transfer of the DSJ who, it said, was responsible for the situation.
The LBA also said that the judges who had resigned should be stopped from working as they had ceased to be judges and judicial magistrates.
The association demanded the withdrawal of a criminal case against lawyers. The case was lodged with the Islampura police by the DSJ.
Besides, a delegation of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, headed by its president Ahmad Awais, called on the chief justice.
Mr Awais later told Dawn that the chief justice's attitude was positive and he sounded keen in resolving the matter amicably through 'a sustained dialogue'.
He said it was agreed that a committee of the LHCBA and the LBA would investigate the matter and submit a report to the chief justice.
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