THE way the lawyers’ community has handled the killing of their colleagues in Daska raises questions if judgements on crimes are to be decided in a court of law or on the streets.

Praise should be for the Punjab police that took prompt action by lodging an FIR and arresting the SHO of Daska for the murder of two lawyers.

Thereafter, the natural course for the legal community was to start preparing a strong case to ensure maximum punishment to the accused.

Unfortunately, the legal community all over Punjab adopted ways that compare well with what Gullu Butt of Lahore adopted in Model Town’s Tahirul Qadri-related incident. They destroyed public and private properties, setting the house of Daska’s DSP on fire, damaging the residence of the assistant commissioner, and attacking the Punjab Assembly building and the commissioner’s office, Lahore.

Gullu Butt is uneducated, a known ruffian, while the lawyers are highly educated, the guardians of law and a respectable community.

The Pakistan Bar Council recently has set a 30-day deadline for the Punjab government to complete the trial of the Daska SHO and award an exemplary punishment to the accused.

Should it be assumed that the PBC has found the accused cop guilty without even a formal trial?

I am sure no lawyer would take up the defence of the accused cop, and no judge could take a decision not in consonance with the mood of the lawyer community.

Shah Bokhari
Peshawar

(2)

THE killings in Daska need to be condemned. The former chief justice is standing by the lawyers and is talking of rule of law.

Can we ask him where he was when the lawyers thrashed judges and the police officials inside the courts? Where was the rule of law then and who took the law into their hands? The former CJ should have spoken then also.

Riaz Ahmed
Lahore

(3)

PUNJAB is the largest province of Pakistan population-wise. It is expected to set an example of good governance. Unfortunately, it has failed to do so. Here a lawyer is taking the law into his own hand instead of advising people about laws. Similarly, the police whose job is to protect the people have been killing them. How sad it is!

Mostly the police serve as bodyguards of the ruling elite. Do the people have the right to ask why billions of rupees have been spent on the police who only serve politicians and kill people in fake encounters or torture them in police stations?

There is a need for converting the police force into an independent institution, accountable to people for their performance.

Tassaduq Hussain
Lahore

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2015

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