LAHORE: Members of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Wednesday went on strike to protest alleged misbehavior of a judge with their president.
The bar leaders wanted Justice Erum Sajjad Gull to stop working until the dispute was resolved.
After having a meeting with Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, the most senior judge available in the court on Wednesday, senior members of the bar claimed that Justice Gull would not hold her court on Thursday (today) and further negotiations on the issue would be held with Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik. The chief justice was out of city on Wednesday.
The bar leaders announced a complete boycott of courts if Justice Gull continued to work.
However, sources said Justice Gull would continue to work as per routine and daily cause-list of her court was also issued for Thursday.
Court staff say bar chief ignored judge’s order and refused to leave rostrum
LHCBA President Pir Masood Chishti, former presidents Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari, Asghar Ali Gill, Pakistan Bar Council vice chairman Azam Nazir Tarar, Lahore Bar Association president Ishtiaq A. Khan and some other senior members had a meeting with Justice Shah after the alleged episode.
Earlier, the bar convened an emergency meeting of its general house. Addressing the house, Mr Chishti said being president of the bar he showed grace to the female judge. “If I was not the president of the bar, I would have given a befitting response to the judge,” he added.
He claimed that Justice Gull had misbehaved with him when he requested her to take up a pending case.
Officials said the judge had asked the president to get next date of hearing from court staff as the case had been kept pending due to unavailability of lawyer concerned. The judge asked Mr Chishti to leave the rostrum and let her hear next case when he kept on insisting that his case should be taken up. The judge left the courtroom as the president did not leave the rostrum.
Calling the ‘rude behaviour’ of the judge a planned conspiracy against bench and bar, the leaders demanded removal of the judge through a reference before the Supreme Judicial Council.
Justice Erum Sajjad Gull was appointed as additional judge on June 8, 2015, in a batch of 10 new judges.
Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015
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