LAHORE: A group of lawyers on Saturday manhandled college teachers for holding a sit-in and keeping Lower Mall Road blocked outside the Civil Secretariat for almost a month.

Around 25 to 30 lawyers led by Punjab Bar Council members Adeeb Aslam Bhinder and Ashfaq Bhular approached the protesting teachers and asked them to vacate the road because they face difficulty in entering and leaving the district and sessions court. However, the teachers refused to vacate the road “till acceptance of their demand of a notification of pay and service protection.”

The two sides exchanged harsh words due to which the lawyers manhandled the teachers and also threw away their chairs and tables placed on the road. Some of the teachers suffered minor injuries. Passersby and civil society members intervened and dispersed the lawyers.

The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) condemned the lawyers’ attack on the protesting teachers. The PPLA office-bearers spoke to Pakistan Bar Council member Abid Saqi who told them that the bar council would pass a solidarity statement with the PPLA on Sunday (today).

Pakistan Bar Council ‘expresses solidarity with the victims’

College teacher’s pay and service protection committee convener Chaudhry Ghulam Murtaza told Dawn that 25 to 30 lawyers tried to forcibly vacate the road. He said two days earlier, the lawyers had approached them and hurled threats of dire consequences for blocking the road and asked them to vacate the road otherwise they would pull down their camp and also torture them.

He said they had reported the matter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) who deputed policemen for their security.

Mr Murtaza said the college teachers remained calm and asked the lawyers that they be provided an alternative route to enter courts but the lawyers did not listen to them. He said that on Saturday afternoon, the lawyers attacked the teachers by tearing their clothes and threw away the furniture.

“I have reported the matter to the Bar council and it will issue a condemnation statement in a day or two,” he said.

Mr Murtaza said the teachers had requested the lawyers not to intervene in their matter because they had been agitating for the last 27 days to demand pay and service protection. He said the policemen did not intervene and played the role of silent spectator.

The college teachers had been holding a sit-in outside the Civil Secretariat on Lower Mall to demand regularisation of jobs with pay protection. The protesters have blocked both sides of the road to protest against the government for delaying acceptance of their demands.

The teachers also had a meeting with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar two days ago. The CM directed the finance and higher education departments’ secretaries to issue a notification of the pay and service protection but it could not be issued owing to political uncertainty.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2022