THE time was quarter past four and the place was hardly 500 metres from the Sindh High Court building where Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was slated to address the members of the bar. One expected the place to be brimming with people, given the rousing reception the chief justice got recently in the NWFP and Punjab.

But contrary to all expectations, the place was almost deserted if you took away the dozens --- nay hundreds of rangers personnel and policemen --- who were on Shahrah-i-Iraq, the street that has the Mehboob Cloth Market at one end and the main gate of the high court building on the other. All the shops were closed, except the one where we bought cigarettes, etc.

Suddenly, we heard the sound of gunshots. Our first reaction was to duck and to cling to the wall nearest us. Then as we looked towards the place from where the sound came, we saw a grey Land Cruiser screech to a halt. A couple of young men wearing pants alighted from it, with one of them carrying a rather oversized pistol.

The two men darted towards a car and proceeded to pull the driver out and then to slap him repeatedly. The man was abused and punched for a couple of minutes, after which he was allowed to go. We didn’t see the poor man well or long enough for us to make out what he had done to deserve such a treatment. He was perhaps a lawyer.

A few young men standing nearby saw all this with a nonchalance which seemed rather odd. Initially we did see concern in their eyes, but that was soon replaced with a calm that stems from fully comprehending whatever is transpiring. A few rangers men perched atop buildings lining the street also saw what had taken place but did nothing.

What could be behind the bizarre incident? This kept bothering us. After pondering for a while, the four of us journalists reached the conclusion that the episode was aimed solely at sowing fear and apprehension in the minds of people who wanted to proceed to the high court building.

But what was the need? The building in question had been cordoned off so masterfully (using containers and trucks which were parked on every street in the vicinity) that not many people could have reached the place despite their best efforts. And the chief justice --- the man for whom they could have converged on the high court building --- too had been isolated from his supporters and there was little chance of him making an appearance anytime soon.

But as it seemed, the powers that be didn’t want to take any chances. That’s why they were resorting to all kinds of tactics to deal with the situation.