LAHORE, Nov 5: A seven member bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Punjab chief secretary, home secretary and inspector general of police to take a strict action against the “miscreants” who locked courtrooms of the lower judiciary on Nov 4 and sought a report on Friday.

Where Justice M Bilal Khan called “the miscreants” as “criminals”, Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha observed their action was punishable under the Anti Terrorism Act.

The bench comprised Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha, Justice Nasim Sikandar, Justice M Bilal Khan, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq. The LHC administrative committee decided to take up the matter in the court after meeting again at 11am.

The chief justice had called the administrative committee’s meeting on Tuesday after the news about locking of the courtrooms broke out. The committee meeting was put off on the request of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had given an assurance that action would be taken against those responsible for the act.

In the first phase of the proceedings, the bench directed Additional Advocate General Hanif Khatana to ask the chief secretary, the home secretary and the IG to appear in person at 2.30pm.

When the proceedings resumed with the arrival of the officials, Justice Najam-uz-Zaman, head of the bench, said the incident was “very unfortunate”.

Justice Bilal asked the chief secretary should the authorities play spectators and let the miscreants do whatever they wanted when it was in knowledge of a cognizable offence. The judge made the observation when the chief secretary said they had been waiting for instructions from the district and sessions judge.

Turning to the home secretary, Justice Bilal asked him whey he did not act when the courtrooms were being locked. “What sort of intelligence network do you have? What would you do if your civil secretariat is on fire and your chief secretary is abroad? Would you wait for him or do the needful?" the judge asked. During the course of proceedings, Justice Bilal observed the officials were trying to “dilute the incident” and dubbed as joke their reason for not proceeding against the miscreants. “If your government is unable to take any action, let us know. We have other options,” Justice Bilal said.

Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said peaceful protests were permissible, but the locking of courtrooms and denial of justice to litigants fell below civility.

Justice Abdul Shakoor observed because action was delayed, the incident was repeated in Chiniot and Shakarghar.

The IG said the administration had been waiting for instructions as the lawyers had been protesting for the last one year and it was very careful in dealing with them. All the officials repeatedly assured the bench that they would take action against the responsible and stop recurrence of such incidents.

Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi said: “It was too much to have locked the courtrooms. It meant that an organ of the state was attacked and paralysed.”

The bench directed them to consult with intelligence agencies, including Special Branch, and get footage from different news channels to identify the ‘miscreants’.