LAHORE, May 9: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday termed the sealing of the office of Advocate Munir A Malik, Supreme Court Bar President and counsel for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, as an act of gangsterism, and asked the government to desist from harassing the leaders of the lawyers’ movement.

An HRCP statement said the Karachi Building Control Authority’s action of taking over Mr Malik’s office for violation of the rule pertaining to establishing offices in a residential area was unjustified.

The KBCA, the statement pointed out, did not see anything wrong with the functioning of office at the location for the last five years. It also termed the action discriminatory, saying that no step was taken against other business concerns operating in the same locality. It alleged that the legal procedure was ignored while proceeding against Mr Malik

“Nobody will be convinced that the attack on the SCBA chief could have been conceived and executed by KBCA on its own. The identity of those responsible for the foul deed cannot be concealed. Obviously the regime has been seized by panic to an extent that it has deemed it expedient to browbeat the leaders of the lawyers’ movement for independence and dignity of the judiciary. Such tactics will only make the government case more indefensible than ever,” the statement said.

The HRCP, it said, demanded immediate withdrawal of the `highhanded’ action taken by the Karachi authorities and called upon the federal establishment to desist from blatantly violating citizens’ rights.