CHAKWAL, July 25: The lawyers of Chakwal on Wednesday stormed the court of Senior Civil Judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha and locked him along with six other judges in the room over what they termed “uncalled for behaviour” of the judge.

After locking the judges in the court room, they started shouting slogans against the judges and announced strike on Thursday.

Sources told Dawn that a few days ago a lawyer Khawja Khalid Farooq had filed a bail application for an accused who was arrested for robbery.

A source in the court said that after the judge accepted the bail petition the lawyer’s assistants allegedly made some changes in it.

“The assistants of Advocate Khawja Khalid Farooq snatched the bail petition from the steno and changed the name of police station, besides making some other changes in it”, the source maintained.

When the staff members of Judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha informed him about the incident, the latter brought the issue in the notice of District and Session Judge Tahir Sabir who ordered an inquiry.

The inquiry committee found that the petition was tempered with. Judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha ordered for registration of a case under section 420 of Pakistan Penal Code against the assistants of lawyer Khawja Khalid Farooq.

On Wednesday the assistants of Khawja Khalid Farooq went to Judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha and demanded photo copies of the inquiry report but according to the lawyers the judge dawdled in providing the photo copy of the report.

At this the lawyers stormed the court and locked Judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha along with six other judges in the court room. The judges remained locked for an hour.

The anger of lawyers cooled down after Additional District and Session Judge Raja Pervez Akhtar negotiated with them and they unlocked the judges.

Despite the settlement of the row, the lawyers not only called for a strike against the judge but also demanded his transfer.

“The judge intentionally did not provide the photo copy of the inquiry report that’s why we have been forced to act in such a way”, General Secretary of District Bar Association Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Zubair said.

“We will continue protest unless the judge is transferred”, he warned. Advocate Iftikhar Haider said that the judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha and District and Session Judge Tahir Sabir tried to create a breach between bar and bench.

“The district and sessions judge should have acted earlier to fix the issue”, he said.

When contacted, Judge Liaquat Ali Ranjha told Dawn that he was chairing a meeting when the photo copy of inquiry report was demanded. “The order for registration of a case was issued because the bail petition was tempered with”, he said.