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| November 09, 2007 | Friday | Shawwal 27, 1428 |
KARACHI: Sedition charges make lawyers see red
KARACHI, Nov 8: Police on Thursday arrested four members of the Karachi Bar Association and at least one member of the Pakistan Bar Council from the steps of the Sindh High Court in an ongoing crackdown against lawyers outraged by the registration of sedition charges against members of the legal fraternity.
Over a hundred lawyers gathered at the City Courts to demand the release of incarcerated colleagues and protest the emergency rule while police retaliated by subsequently storming the building.
Orders are also learnt to have been issued for the arrests of another PBC member and two former presidents of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA).
Meanwhile, the SHCBA passed a resolution extending until Nov 12 the boycott of judges who recently took an oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.
“The cases of treason lodged against lawyers, who had merely been protesting, was what actually sparked Thursday’s protest,” said a senior KBA member who attended the protest meeting but escaped arrest. The impromptu gathering of concerned lawyers suggests that the legal fraternity is reorganising and notching up the pace of its protest to the PCO imposed by General Musharraf on Nov 3. “The lawyers took the initiative themselves, after they came to know the offence their colleagues have been accused of,” the KBA member told Dawn.
Under the directives of higher authorities, cases of sedition were registered at the City Courts against eight lawyers who had been protesting the emergency rule. FIR 114/2007 under Section 124(a)/34, which pertains to sedition, was lodged on behalf of the state against lawyers Maqbool Hasan, Javed Tanoli, Sabir Tanoli, Mohammed Aslam Bhatti, Masoodur Rehman, Mohammed Imran Khan, Khurram Nisar and Jamila Manzoor.
While none of the lawyers nominated in the FIR have yet been arrested, the government’s move triggered a fresh wave of protest among the legal fraternity. Dozens of lawyers gathered in the Bar Room on the first floor of the City Courts and chanted slogans against the government’s high-handedness. The building was immediately surrounded by the police who then entered the premises. Supported by Rangers, dozens of policemen started searching the building but the majority of the lawyers escaped arrest.
“We were anticipating the action, so most of us fled before the police entered the Bar Room,” said a lawyer. “The police arrested the lawyers they found downstairs, returning from the protest meeting.”
After the operation, which began at about 10am and lasted until 1.30pm, sources confirmed the arrest of former KBA librarian, Ghulam Asghar Shah Saain and KBA members Ejaz Mubarak, Khawaja M. Salim and Imtiaz Ali Leghari under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance.
At a meeting called later by the Social Democratic Lawyers Forum, a common platform for lawyers affiliated with different political parties, the fresh police assaults were condemned and the government was asked to revive constitutional rule. “Police action and sedition charges can’t stop us from raising the voice for justice,” said the statement issued. “Lawyers are well aware of their responsibility for democracy and will make this struggle a success.”
Meanwhile, a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, Abul Inam, was taken into custody from the steps of the Sindh High Court as he came out of the bar room after attending a general body meeting of the SHCBA at noon on Thursday. He was taken first to the Clifton police station and later shifted to the Central Prison. Police said he had been detained for a month under the MPO.
Orders are also learnt to have been issued for the arrest of another PBC member, Mohammed Yasin Azad, and former SHCBA presidents Akhtar Hussain and Abdul Hafeez Lakho who are keeping the lawyers’ campaign alive by arranging daily SHCBA general body meetings. PBC member Rasheed A. Razvi and the president of the SHCBA, Abrar Hasan, are already under confinement. Some of the detained lawyers, including Shafi Muhammadi and his son, have meanwhile been released.
Earlier, the SHCBA general body passed a resolution extending until Nov 12 its boycott of the judges who took an oath under the PCO. Fresh measures will, however, be taken in pursuance of PBC decisions. The meeting condemned the bar on the entry of media people on to the premises of the SHC and demanded its immediate withdrawal. It also deplored the curbs on the entry of lawyers and litigants and urged members of the civil society to continue their protest against the imposition of emergency rule.
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