ISLAMABAD: Expressing concern about the attitude of the lawyers’ community, the Islamabad police informed the judiciary that in the current situation it may not be possible to provide security to the courts, police officials said on Tuesday.

The police spoke in response to an incident on March 18, in which a group of lawyers attacked and injured an assistant sub-inspector, they said.

The police demanded action against the lawyers involved, and said the incident demoralised the police, particularly officials deployed in and around the courts for security, they added.

In a letter to the sessions judges east and west Islamabad and the presidents of the high court and district bar associations, Senior Superintendent of Police Sajid Kiani said police stopped a motorcyclist at a checkpoint at Faisal Chowk on Margalla Road in the afternoon on March 15. “The motorcyclist did not produce any documents for motorcycle and hence his motorcycle was shifted to the PS Margalla,” it said.

The motorcycle was later released after the intervention of office bearers from the District Bar Association, the letter said, and the motorcyclist, advocate Imdadullah, also accused the ASI of using abusive language toward. This was also discussed by bar association office bearers and the Margalla station house officer, and the matter was settled.

Mr Imdadullah complained about the ASI before a civil judge, and a hearing in the matter was fixed for March 18 without following the procedure set in CrPC section 202, the letter said. When the ASI appeared in court, in uniform, for the hearing, a group of lawyers led by Mr Imdadullah physically assaulted him inside and outside the courtroom, the letter said.

An FIR was registered against four nominated individuals and 20 unidentified lawyers in various charges the same day.

Mr Kiani said in the letter: “I do not have any doubt that lawyer community is an important part of criminal justice system and any such incident cannot be attributed towards the whole lawyer community, but I would like to say it with complete responsibility that this incident has extremely demoralized the Islamabad police engaged for the security of Districts and Superior Courts.”

He said the low morale would affect the security of the courts, as the incident has widened the lack of trust between police deployed for security and lawyers.

The letter said the situation could be exploited by anyone dressed in lawyer’s attire to bypass police checking.

The letter said that while a criminal case has been registered, punitive measures such as suspending the lawyers’ licence should be taken to boost the police’s morale and prevent such incidents in the future.

“I have no doubt that occurrence of such incident has undermined the effectiveness of police deployed for security and if strong remedial measures are not taken then it should not be appropriate to expect provision of proper security by the police,” the letter stated.

It added: “It is also worth mentioning that a large number of police officials have views that this is a fit case for Suo Motu intervention in the best interest of large number of citizens of Pakistan visiting courts on dally basis, whose security may be compromised because of this incident.”

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2017