Women holding a demonstration against the killing of Shazia Masih, organised by Y.W.C.A. in front of Press Club. - Photo by APP.

The rule of law is predicated on two fundamental tenets everyone is innocent until proven guilty and all are equal. But lawyers and media persons in Lahore, each party pursuing one of the two tenets to the exclusion of the other, clashed at the venue of a magisterial court in Lahore on Tuesday, where the main accused in the Shazia Masih case was remanded to police custody.

While sections of the media have already declared a local advocate guilty of torturing his young employee to death, some lawyers have thrown their collective weight behind the accused who was formerly the president of the Lahore Bar Association. They are making the holding of a free and fair trial difficult.

By taking sides, each party is in fact contributing to a further erosion of the rule of law in society. If the media can accuse, investigate, try and punish those charged with crime, what good are the police, lawyers, courts of law and prisons? If lawyers can block media coverage when one of their own is in the dock, and try and ensure special treatment at courts and police stations for the accused, what happens to the tenet of even-handed justice? By denigrating and mistreating journalists, reporters and cameramen at will, what good are their calls for other sections of society, especially politicians, to open up, obey the rule of law and treat state and societal institutions with respect?

This is not the first time that the media and lawyers have clashed in Lahore nor, unfortunately, will it be the last. Matters cannot be rectified unless both sides accept that every institution of state and society needs to define its legal boundaries and work within them. By trespassing on the territory of the courts and the police, the media will only end up creating trouble for itself. Meanwhile, the lawyers, who appear to have assumed the moral guardianship of every other institution, can only perpetuate their image as bullies. A strict delineation of the boundaries between the two is, therefore, the only way of avoiding any future confrontation.