LAHORE: Lawyers at Model Town courts on Saturday frustrated an ‘anti-encroachment’ operation by the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) against their chambers being constructed on the lawns of the court premises.

The officials made two attempts to stop the lawyers from constructing their chambers ‘illegally’ -- first on Friday night and the other on Saturday morning. However, both attempts failed as lawyers did not allow the officials to even enter the court premises.

Sources said Model Town Assistant Commissioner Abdullah Nayyar had summoned district government’s officials to stop the construction of the chambers. However, he himself sent the officials and police back owing to the immense pressure put by the Lahore Bar Association (LBA).

Twenty-one chambers were recently constructed by the lawyers on a small park situated at the rear side of the court. Around 25 more chambers were being built by the lawyers on the area on the front side of the court.

On condition of anonymity, a lawyer said the chambers were being constructed on the state land at the behest of bar’s elected leaders. He said the incumbent leadership of the bar wanted to reward their group members ahead of fresh election in the first week of January.

The chambers were more important than the park on the court premises, said a lawyer who was inspecting construction of his chamber.

He said lawyers would demolish the chambers if the authorities provided them with an alternative and suitable place.

LBA vice president from Model Town seat, Zameer Ahmed Jhedu, said the bar had allotted the place for construction of chambers to 45 lawyers. He said construction of a multi-storey building was on the cards to accommodate lawyers.

A senior CDGL official said the authorities called back police to avoid a scuffle because more than 300 lawyers had gathered against there.

The assistant commissioner was not available for his comments.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2014