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| May 04, 2007 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1428 |
Lawyers, police clash at SC gate
ISLAMABAD, May 3: Lawyers and police clashed here on Thursday when the demonstraters outside Supreme Court (SC) were barred from entering the court premises during appearance of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
Tension mounted outside the SC when the chief justice reached the court and a large number of lawyers tried to enter the premises. They were stopped by police in uniform and plain clothes as directed by the registrar.
Lawyers beat up policemen with sticks and umbrellas and the police used batons to push the protesters back. Seven lawyers, including Intizar Shah, Javed Iqbal, Azmat Qureshi, Faisal Butt and Zafar Alam Chadhry, were injured.
During the clash, the chief justice was not allowed to enter the court building for 25 minutes, causing delay in the hearing of the reference against him.
Journalists were also denied entry into the court and some of them were manhandled by security officers.
Only workers of the Awami National Party (ANP) had reached the place at the time but they kept away from the scene.
The main reception of the court was heavily guarded by police and intelligence agencies’ personnel.
Two SC officials deputed at the gate claimed that the registrar of the court had ordered them not to let any journalist in.
When the journalists protested and tried to contact the registrar, they were told that he was busy in the SJC meeting.
Meanwhile, a group of lawyers joined the journalists and raised slogans for freedom of the press. Meanwhile, lawyers gathered at the main reception forced their entry into the building and the journalists also made their way in. On the occasion, some people manhandled the journalists, injuring three reporters.
Later, a delegation of journalists met Registrar Mohammad Ali and complained about the incident. The registrar said there was no ban on journalists’ entry but admitted that he wanted to restrict the entry of reporters.
The Islamabad administration issued a press note claiming that Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashfaq Ahmed and seven constables had been injured in the clash. The district magistrate said the lawyers had been stopped under the orders of the SC registrar. “The lawyers had been conveyed the orders of the registrar that only SC advocates, advocates on record and those whose cases were fixed in the SC on the day were allowed to enter and no other lawyer or political party workers would be permitted to enter the court,” the magistrate said.
A small number of political workers were seen in the protest and all the main leaders, except Raza Zafarul Haq of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Liaquat Baloch of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, did not participate in it.
CASE REGISTERED: Nearly 110 lawyers and 200 activists of the MMA were booked on charges of obstructing police, tearing the uniform of the SP and forcibly entering the Supreme Court building, sources said.
Two cases had been registered at the Secretariat police station but no one had been arrested, the police sources said.
Police claimed that the uniform of the SP had been torn and his spectacles damaged.
The sources said video footage of the protest filmed by the security agencies was seen and those ‘obstructing’ the police identified as accused in the FIR.
They included, former president of Rawalpindi Bar Association Sardar Shaukat Hayat, former president of Islamabad Bar Association Saleem Abbasi, Ghulam Murtaza Watto, Intizar Hussain Shah, Azmat Qureshi, Zafar Alam Chaudhry, Javaid Saleem Chaudhry, Amjad Butt and 110 other lawyers of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Taxila bars, the sources said.
They broke the Supreme Court gate, tortured the police, caused injuries to them and tried to force into the building, the FIR said.
An FIR was registered by the police against 200 activists of the MMA on charges of pelting stones on a police party during Wednesday’s demonstration.
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