ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday summoned 17 lawyers on Feb 18 in contempt of court case.

The lawyers were accused of storming the Chief Justice Block on Feb 8 and holding the chief justice and other judges hostage for four hours.

IHC judicial registrar office issued the show cause notices to the lawyers including the Islamabad Bar Council member Naseer Kayani, Raja Zahid, Tasadduq Hanif, Yasmin Sindhu, Ahsan Majeed Gujjar, Arbab Ayub Gujjar, Faisal Jadoon, Farzana Mughal, Hamad Dar, Nazia Abbasi, Shaista Tabassum, Kulsoom Rafique, Kamran Yousafzai, Hafiz Malik Mazhar Javed, Khalid Mehmood, Raja Amjad and Raja Farrukh.

The show-cause notice accused the lawyers that they were “part of a mob/crowd consisting of a handful of enrolled advocates which left the district courts at about 9am on Feb 8, 2021 with the intent to storm the Islamabad High Court, intimidate the Hon’ble Judges and thus bringing disrespect and disrepute to this court”.

It accused them of forcibly breaking the main door of the Chief Justice Block and attacking the uniformed police personnel.

It alleged that the attackers “resorted to vandalising the court premises, rowdyism with the intent to intimidate the chief justice”.

As per the show-cause notice the mob “held the chief justice and other judges as hostages and forced the judicial proceedings to remain suspended for four hours” which deprived the litigants of justice.

As per the notice, the above mentioned lawyers have “committed contempt of this court” and are liable to punishment under Article 204 of the Constitution read with Sections 3 and 4 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.

The lawyers were directed to submit explanation within seven days and appear in person on Feb 18.

The lawyers were among those 400 who stormed the IHC building on Feb 8, injured the IHC’s staff, besides they also damaged the furniture and smashed the window of the Chief Justice Block.

Police have registered an FIR against 21 lawyers under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act.

The IHC on Wednesday also issued contempt of court notices to 12 more lawyers including Akhtar Hussain, Asad Ullah Khan, Khalid Mehmood Khan, Asif Gujjar, Rustam Malik, Shoaib Chaudhry, Mohammad Umer, Naveed Hayat Malik, Nusrat Parveen, Saiful Islam Sindhu, Shela Shan Abbasi and Zafar Khokhar.

Meanwhile, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah during hearing of a case remarked that only 5pc of the lawyers attacked the High Court. He remarked that it is embarrassment for those 90 lawyers who laid their lives for the rule of law.

Justice Minallah said that he had asked the police to stay away when the attackers stormed the Chief Justice Block and stayed there as hostage for three hours.

He said that during seven years of his judicial career he never supported any illegal act nor would he support such an act in future.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2021