LAHORE, Nov 2: The Fane Road law chambers dispute, at least two decades old, recently developed into a crisis when it was politicized by vested interests.
An indication to how the crises was allowed to develop, comes from the last-minute refusal of some people to withdraw a petition pending with the division bench comprising Justice Syed Tasadaq Husain Jilani and Justice Raja Mohammad Sabir. They did so a day before the demolition on Oct 25.
The Supreme Court, cognizant of a petition filed by Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf, had worked out an arrangement to accommodate the 47 affected people, beginning with the 13 original allottees who had been tenants of the Evacuee Property Trust Board that sold the 17 kanals to the Lahore High Court.
They were accordingly asked to withdraw the petition from the Lahore High Court. The high court had made similar gestures and all was set for a deal subsequent to withdrawal of the petition, when a few people put their feet down, creating trouble for many.
What happened over the next week could only be termed unfortunate, because the institutions suffered in the end. The trouble ended only when many in the profession realized that no more space could be allowed to trouble-makers.
The problem raised its head in 1980s. When the first Benazir government came to power, a committee, including the then federal ministers Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Syed Iftikhar Husain Gilani, Aitzaz Ahsan and Syed Afzal Haider, a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Pakistan Law and Justice Commission, was assigned the task of working out a settlement. The committee recommended that two to three kanals should be earmarked for lawyers’ chambers and the rest given to the high court for establishment of its offices.
The committees, set up in 1992-93, 1997 before the latest one, made this decision more or less the basis for their award. In 1992-93, the committee comprised justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari and Justice Khalil Ramday. Then it was the committee of Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum and Justice Khalil Ramday. The latest committee comprises Justice Tasadaq Husain Jilani and Justice Raja Mohammad Sabir. All the committees approved two to three kanals for lawyers’ chambers.
It may be mentioned here that the original allottees, including Syed Afzal Haider, Syed Ahmad Saeed Kirmani, Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf and Chaudhry Mohammad Sadiq, number 13. The remaining 34 occupants may be divided into two categories. Those who occupied the chambers as tenants under a formal permission and those who just walked in and occupied offices. The first category includes Jahangir Badar, BAS Fakhri and a former deputy attorney-general.
One incident needs mention to substantiate how the situation has been subverted. In Jan 1997, when the committee comprising Justice Qayyum and Justice Ramday, was working on the issue and an award was in the offing, some squatters submitted an application carrying bogus signatures of Syed Afzal Haider, and secured status quo at a juncture when it was almost decided that three kanals would be handed over to the original allottees who had worked out a plan to accommodate all others.
Now that the Lahore High Court Bar Association has found another opportunity to resolve the dispute on the basis of former awards, lawyers’ leadership is obliged not to waste it at the meeting which will hopefully be held on Monday (today). What is being offered is that original allottees will get preferential treatment while the remaining 34 will also be accommodated. It sounds a good basis for a deal that always needs a give-and-take to settle things down. —Mahmood Zaman