LAHORE: Judge 'goes on leave' - Lawyers end boycott
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE, May 17: District and sessions judge Khalil Ahmad Chaudhry did not attend his office on Monday as the court sources say he has gone on 'leave'.
His 'leave' is part of a general consensus between the bench and the bar that the district and sessions judge will be removed from the scene of conflict gradually.
His absence from duty meets one demand of the agitating lawyers that he should be transferred for "playing a key role in brewing an ugly scene" at the sessions courts on May 14 and 15 when the police and lawyers clashed, leaving 19 bar members and seven policemen injured.
The leave of Mr Khalil Chaudhry resulted in lowering the profile of agitation by the lawyers who ended the boycott of all courts except that of the district and sessions judge.
However, they still kept on mounting pressure for which they continued their protest though it was only symbolic. A protest camp remained active at the Aiwan-i-Adl, and the lawyers joined a protest meeting that the Lahore Bar Association had called at the sessions courts.
A resolution adopted by the meeting, chaired by LBA president Mirza Haneef Baig, demanded the transfer of the D&SJ and withdrawal of criminal allegations against lawyers, including the bar president.
The Lahore High Court Bar Association also played a supportive role by adopting two resolutions at a meeting with bar president Ahmad Awais in the chair.
Through the first resolution, moved by Barrister Zafarullah Khan, the LHCBA expressed solidarity with their colleagues in the subordinate courts in adopting their demands with the addition that action should be taken against the policemen responsible for torturing lawyers at the behest of the district and sessions judge.
Through another resolution, the LHCBA condemned the judicial officers who had tendered resignations on May 14, and requested the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief justice of the Lahore High Court to hold an inquiry into their misconduct.
If it was proved that they had quit their offices, they should be proceeded against for professional misconduct. The resolution, moved by Chaudhry Ghulam Sarwar Nihang, pleaded that the resignations of judicial officers should be accepted and they be prevented from performing duty.
It said all judicial officers who had resigned from their offices, ceased to exist under the law. "They tendered resignations as if they were carrying out a trade union activity which was highly unbecoming of their professional office," it said.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Bar Council, the Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Lahore Bar Association are meeting here on Tuesday to discuss afresh whether the call issued to lawyers by the PBC on Saturday for a province-wide strike on Wednesday should be withdrawn.
Council' executive committee chairperson Pervaiz Inayat Malik told Dawn here on Monday that the call was conditional to the transfer of the district and sessions judge. The three lawyer bodies would review the latest situation and decide afresh if conditions still existed to reaffirm the call for a strike across the province.
