ISLAMABAD: In the wake of the lawyers’ recent rampage outside the Lahore High Court, Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali has urged other law officers of the country to play their role in ending the chaos.

On Thursday, Mr Ausaf wrote to around 130 law officers of the country, ranging from additional attorneys general (AAGs) to deputy attorneys general (DAGs), the advocates general of the provinces and standing counsel, to express his anguish over the incident.

The letter was written in view of the ugly scenes that were witnessed when the lawyers’ community broke past the judges entry gate of the Lahore High Court on Aug 22 and clashed with security personnel after the high court issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Sher Zaman Qureshi, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association’s (LHCBA) Multan bench, who had repeatedly refused to join contempt of court proceedings initiated against him for misbehaving with Justice Qasim Khan.

In his letter, the AG highlighted that these were turbulent times, and that agitation at the bar associations on all the benches was escalating.

Calls on lawyers to shun strikes and demonstrations

“We need to act proactively and responsibly,” the AG said, adding that as lawyers, it was their responsibility to uphold the dignity of the bar and to show respect to the judicial organs of the country.

“It is my earnest desire that the attorney general’s office should act as a bridge between the bar and the bench. Each one of you has his/her own respective area of influence and standing at the bar.” In these trying times, the letter explained, law officers could act as agents of positive and healthy change.

“Please voice your opinion and make it known that we stand united in condemning high-handedness and that you are committed to the cause of the unity and dignity of the bar and the bench,” the AG said. He also regretted that strikes and demonstrations could not bring about the resolution of disputes between the bar and the bench, and said that such calls should be shunned.

The general public, the letter highlighted, should know that we as responsible citizens do not believe in the politics of agitation and believe in the peaceful resolution of differences.

Earlier, on Aug 18, as many as 85 jurists, including former judges and senior lawyers, had asked the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to disavow the unfortunate trend of hooliganism and take a clear stance supporting the settled norms of legal practice.

In their letter, the jurists stated that they stood firmly for both the rule of law and the dignity of the bar. But there can be no rule of law and equally no dignity of the bar if lawyers openly flout their code of ethics and instead indulge in slogan-mongering inside court rooms, disrupt court proceedings, vandalise court property and refuse to obey orders of the court, the letter deplored.

The recent conduct of lawyers in Multan and Lahore was undignified and unacceptable by any standard. No system of justice could function in such conditions, the letter regretted.

The lawyers’ storming of the court was even condemned by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), when its vice chairman Mohammad Ahsan Bhoon cautioned lawyers that any move to put pressure on judges and the judiciary would be tantamount to creating hindrances in the dispensation of justice.

Therefore, such incidents will be opposed by the legal fraternity with full force to ensure the majesty of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

The PBC had also urged the lawyers to act with wisdom and not to politicise the unfortunate position taken by those who were bent upon using violent tactics to cow the judiciary.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2017