November 08, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 26, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 7: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge, Shabbir Husain Chattha, on Wednesday admitted an application, seeking early hearing of bail pleas of hundreds of lawyers arrested in Monday operation at the Lahore High Court.

The bail petitions, fixed earlier for November 10, will now come up for hearing today (Thursday). Advocate Aftab Bajwa had filed the applications on behalf of 344 lawyers.

The petition for early hearing says those arrested were the officers of the courts and lawyers. “Their arrests were obstructing the dispensation of justice due to which lots of litigants were suffering unnecessarily,” the lawyer said.

In the interest of justice and nation, it was imperative that their bail petitions be heard as soon as possible, he said.

Bajwa said the lawyers were being dispatched to jails in other cities from Lahore camp jail and Kot Lakhpat jail.

The cases against the lawyers were lodged under 16 MPO, section 7 of Anti-terrorism Act and Sections 290/291, 186/188, 147/148, 427/440, 353/324 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at Old Anarkali police station.