FAISALABAD: Judges of Jaranwala courts suspended their work after a lawyer injured Justice Khalid Mahmood by hitting him with a chair during proceedings of a case on Thursday.

Police registered a case against Advocate Imran Manj under section 7-ATA, and 186, 189, 228, 324, 353 and 427 of PPC on the complaint of Mohammad Nawaz, reader of the judge.

The applicant said the suspect had been pressuring the judge for a decision in favour of his father Mohammad Anwar. The case Ayub Khan vs Anwar had been pending with the judge, he added. He said the judge had adjourned the case and started proceeding of the next case but Advocate Imran did not leave court.

After a few minutes, he hit the judge with a chair and also damaged the table glass top. He said the lawyer also hurled life threats at the judge, tried to hit him again and finally took to the heels.

PbBC suspends his licence; police register case under ATA

The conduct of the lawyer panicked the litigants in the courtroom and the judge was immediately shifted to the hospital where his medico-legal was conducted.

As the word got round, the judges of other courts went on strike and police started raids to arrest the lawyer.

The bar president, Rana Mehtab Aftab said the lawyer was not a member of the Jaranwala bar and next time he would not be allowed to appear in any court here. A source disputed Aftab’s claim and said the accused was a member of the bar.

In a similar incident a few months ago, lawyer Liaquat Javed roughed up Faisalabad Deputy Commissioner Saifullah Dogar when he was chairing a meeting at his office. However, no action had been taken against Javed. He, along with his sons, was booked a couple of days ago on charges of thrashing a lawyer, Mohammad Hussain, on the district bar premises and also resorting to aerial firing. Their pre-arrest bails had also been rejected by a court but police did not arrest them.

LICENCE: The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) has suspended license of advocate Imran Manj and summoned him in person on May 4 to explain his act of torturing the civil judge.

In a statement, the executive committee of the PbBC condemned the act of Mr Manj and said the matter was of great concern and could not be tolerated.

“We are having unanimous view to censure the respondent on this shameful act and the practicing license of Mr Imran Manj is hereby suspended with immediate effect,” said the statement.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2019