KARACHI: Legal proceedings remained suspended at the City Courts on Monday as lawyers observed a boycott of courts while the court staff also went on strike after a group of lawyers forced them to suspend legal work, causing hardship for the litigants.

The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) had given the call for boycott in protest against the May 20 incident in which a senior civil judge allegedly misbehaved with a senior lawyer.

The court officials said a group of lawyers had visited the courts to ensure the complete boycott on Monday and saw the judicial magistrate (West) conducting proceedings in the courtroom. They got enraged and forced the magistrate and his staff to suspend the legal work as they were boycotting the courts.

The magistrate and court staff told the lawyers that they had not received any intimation about the boycott. After a heated debate, the lawyers got the legal work suspended.

Subsequently, an association of courts’ staff also decided to go on strike against the alleged misbehaviour of the lawyers with the magistrate and his staff.

KBA president Naeem Qureshi said senior lawyer Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal had appeared before senior civil judge (South) Ahmed Yusuf in a case on Saturday. He alleged that the judge had misbehaved with the lawyer, who was also the father of a sessions judge.

Mr Qureshi claimed that the judge also threatened to initiate contempt of court proceedings against some KBA office-bearers who had approached the court to discuss the issue.

He said that a considerable number of upcoming judges were not practicing lawyers, but courts’ clerical staff, adding that there must be at least six-month training and counselling programmes for judges to demonstrate ‘good behaviour’.

He demanded that the senior civil judge be transferred from the City Courts and said the lawyers would chalk out a future course of action after meeting the Sindh High Court chief justice on Tuesday.

On the other hand, the court officials said the senior lawyer was verbally seeking an adjournment in a case in which the high court had issued a directive for its timely disposal and the judge asked him to file an application in writing.

Meanwhile, the litigants suffered and the courts wore a deserted look as hundreds of cases fixed at the City Courts were simply adjourned. Under-trial prisoners were sent back without being produced in courts.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017