KARACHI, Oct 1: The general secretary of the Karachi Bar Association, Naeem Qureshi, and three of his colleagues were arrested on Monday from the gates of the Sindh High Court as they were going to a general body meeting scheduled to be addressed by presidential candidate Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed.The three others arrested were KBA Managing Committee member K.K. Javaid Khan, Ejaz Khattak and Abdul Jabbar.
The lawyers were taken into police custody as they left the City Courts at about 10.30am, shortly after winding up a KBA general body meeting at the Shuhda-e-Punjab Hall. They were taken to the Clifton police station soon after their arrest.
However, the case against them (FIR No 104/07) was registered at the City Courts police station on Saturday. It refers to Sections 147 (Punishment for rioting), 148 (Rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of a common object), 186 (Obstructing public servants in discharge of public functions), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 337-a(1) (Punishment of Shajjah-i-Khafifia) and 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The case was registered by station house officer (SHO) Zahid Hussain and it was stated that the lawyers had injured the SHO and assistant sub-inspector Tariq.
Others lawyers charged in the FIR include KBA president Iftikhar Javaid Qazi, Sindh Bar Council member Salahuddin Khan Gandapur, Faheem Zia, Abdul Samad Baloch, Khalid Tanoli, Hameed Kashmiri, Sakhi Ghazali, Suhail Baig Noori, Saeed Qureshi and Gul Mohammed Arain. Around 60 unnamed lawyers have also been charged in the FIR. Mr Qazi has obtained bail before arrest from an additional district and sessions judge, south.
The Preedy police station registered an FIR (553/07) against the four arrested on Monday. The case refers to Section 147, 148, 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 13-d (Prohibition of going armed without licence) of the Pakistan Arms Ordinance 1965.
Salahuddin Khan Gandapur, Raja Zardad Khan, Saeed Qureshi and Suhail Baig Noori were arrested on September 29 but later released upon the intervention of the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Sabihuddin Ahmed.
The duty office of the City Courts police station told Dawn that KBA general-secretary Naeem Qureshi was absconding in an old FIR (24/2001) registered under Sections 147, 148, 149 and 324 of the PPC. He added that if Mr Qureshi was released on bail, he could again be arrested under this FIR.
While addressing the general body meeting in the morning, KBA general-secretary Naeem Qureshi had said that the legal battle with the rulers had only just started and there was no room for retreat. Reiterating that the issues at stake were the rule of law and the strengthening of democratic institutions, Mr Qureshi condemned police brutality against lawyers and journalists. He said that lawyers had boycotted court proceedings to express their solidarity with those who were made the target of state terrorism on September 29.
He said that the current rulers had used the state’s force against lawyers to provoke them, and condemned the arrest of lawyers from the City Courts. He pointed out that the lawyers had merely wanted to peacefully record their protest on Raja Riaz Shaheed Road but the police had resorted to violence.
KARACHI, Oct 1: The general secretary of the Karachi Bar Association, Naeem Qureshi, and three of his colleagues were arrested on Monday from the gates of the Sindh High Court as they were going to a general body meeting scheduled to be addressed by presidential candidate Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed.The three others arrested were KBA Managing Committee member K.K. Javaid Khan, Ejaz Khattak and Abdul Jabbar.
