LAYYAH, Sept 13: A clerk had to pay heavily for tossing a coin towards district bar president at a post office counter with lawyers passing a resolution to condemn the ‘misbehaviour’ of state officials and postal staff staging a token strike against police and black coats.

Reports said bar president Sheikh Saifullah Saeed visited the GPO to dispatch some legal notices to Multan on Friday morning. The booking clerk, Muhammad Naeem, who was performing dual duty as one of his colleagues was on leave, tossed a Rs2 coin as balance towards the lawyer who was in no mood to take such ‘rude behaviour’.

A verbal quarrel ensued between the clerk and the lawyer which soon turned into a scuffle. The situation turned uglier when, according to Mr Saeed, two other officials came to support their colleague and one of them slapped the lawyer and tore off his shirt.

Mr Saeed informed his colleague of the incident several of whom rushed to the GPO to ‘rescue’ him.

Liaquat Ali, the senior postmaster, told Dawn that he ordered the clerk to apologise to the lawyer and he did so, meanwhile some 20 to 30 black coats stormed the post office, dragged out the clerk, and bundled him into a police van after giving him a good thrashing. Later, the post office staff closed the GPO and went to the police station for lodging their version of the complaint.

Saddar DSP Malik Liaquat and city SHO Muhammad Ashraf tried to persuade the lawyers to accept the apology of postal clerk to settle the matter but they left the police station agitating against both officials.

Mr Saeed moved the sessions court seeking orders to register a case against the clerk. The plea was granted by the court and city police complied.

On Saturday, the GPO officials went on a strike to protest against the lawyers and local police which refused to accommodate their version. Postal deliveries came to a halt and the candidates of supplementary matriculation examinations could not get their roll number slips.

On the other hand, DBA adopted a resolution against ‘rude behaviour’ of the govt officials, and against police.—FAREEDULLAH CHAUDHRY