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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) — a premier body of lawyers — has requested Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar to take notice of and intervene in a controversy that has emerged at the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) where judicial work is suffering badly due to a strike by lawyers.
SCBA president Rasheed A. Razvi told Dawn that he would be visiting Multan soon to try and ease the crisis. He condemned the pressure allegedly being applied by security agencies on members of the bar in Multan.
“I believe that all institutions of the state, be they the executive, the judiciary or the armed forces, should stay within the confines of [their] stipulated domains,” he said, adding it was not the duty of security agencies to intimidate lawyers.
The SCBA has joined individuals and groups that have condemned the suspension of judicial work at the LHC’s Multan bench on the alleged instructions of the chief justice of LHC, Mansoor Ali Shah, following emergence of petty differences between a judge and Multan High Court Bar Association’s president Sher Zaman Qureshi and other lawyers.
The controversy emerged on July 24 when Mr Qureshi along with some lawyers allegedly misbehaved with Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan, who was hearing a case about a mosque falling on the route of a government project.
Exercising his powers, the LHC chief justice subsequently withdrew judges from the Multan bench but made the principal seat of the LHC and its Bahawalpur bench available for dispensation of justice. He called for resumption of work at the Multan bench after a few days even though lawyers were still on strike then.
Meanwhile, the SCBA’s executive committee has condemned “acts of harassment” in which lawyers of the Multan bench and their families have reportedly been intimidated by government agencies.
“The SCBA is deeply concerned... as this illegal act has been used as a tool to barricade the freedom of opinion and freedom of speech,” a resolution adopted by the SCBA said.
It urged the chief justice of Pakistan to fix a joint petition of the High Court Bar Association and the Multan District Bar Association at the earliest in which the Supreme Court had been requested to declare the closure of the Multan bench as void and illegal.
Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2017
