LAHORE: Lawyer tries to commit suicide in CJ's presence
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE, Sept 14: A Lahore High Court lawyer on Tuesday tried to burn himself to death in the court of Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry, having lost his life savings when the highways department demolished his house as an encroachment a few days ago.
Advocate Sardar Bilal Ahmad Dhillon entered the court of the chief justice, who was hearing cases in the courtroom where Justice Javed Buttar used to sit, poured kerosene on his body, which he had brought in a bottle and set himself on fire with a cigarette lighter. He was engulfed by flames in no time and the courtroom filled with smoke.
Most of the people present in the courtroom left in panic but some, including Additional Advocate General Mohammad Akbar Tarar, rushed to rescue him. In no time, the lawyer's body was full of burns, his skin was badly lacerated and his clothes fell down in burnt shreds. The court carpet also caught fire.
Mr Tarar put his coat on the lawyer to put out the flames and sustained injuries in the process. A court assistant (naib) also burned his hands while extinguishing the flames. The chief justice was present in the court till the end of this unfortunate incident.
The court staff rushed the lawyer to the Lahore High Court control room where the high court doctor provided him first-aid. He said the lawyer was out of danger as his pulse was almost normal. He sustained burns on some 60 per cent of his body's surface area, which according to the LHC, was not something fatal. He was later taken to the Services Hospital.
Sardar Bilal Ahmad Dhillon had built a house near the Lahore-Rawalpindi motorway which was opposed by the Punjab Highway Department as an encroachment. The lawyer and the department subsequently entered into litigation over the issue.
The lawyer went from the pillar to the post in the subordinate and superior judiciary for preventing the department from demolishing his house. A judge of the Lahore High Court dismissed his plea for a stay order a few days back and the highway department demolished the house the following day.
According to eyewitnesses, the lawyer entered chief justice's courtroom, shouting that he would commit suicide as he had failed to get justice. The next minute he set himself on fire.
This is the second such incident at high court. A woman, Sundas Farooq, tried to set herself ablaze in the court of Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi about four years ago because of police excesses.
The Lahore High Court Bar Association expressed shock over the incident and said the judiciary must behave differently while ensuring relief for the litigants. LHCBA president Ahmad Awais, who saw the victim soon after the incident, told Dawn that the bar was striving for an independent judiciary only to make sure that people got justice without discrimination and that the rule of law was fully established.
He said the bar would help the lawyer secure his due and lawful right. Bar vice-president Syed Zulfiqar Ali, secretary Azam Nazir Tarar and finance secretary Sarfraz Ahmad visited the lawyer in the hospital.
