Lawyers’ boycott hits lower courts, SHC remains unaffected
HYDERABAD: While lawyers boycotted court work in subordinate judiciary, they appeared in the Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) where all four judges heard cases as per routine on Tuesday.
High Court Bar Association (HCBA) general secretary Hameedullah Dahiri met senior judges of the bench to request that the board of cases should be discharged, but he was told that if the court work continued at the principal seat, they would hear cases.
“The judges said they will not pass any adverse order, but if the principal seat is working, they will also hear cases. Therefore, there was no strike at all in the high court and lawyers appeared before the division and single-member benches,” said Mr Dahiri.
HCBA president Ayaz Tunio was not present in the court as according to him he was busy with cardiac surgery of his maternal uncle and was not aware of the strike in the court on Tuesday.
He said he received a message from the Sindh Bar Council (SBC) and talked to the HCBA general secretary.
But the Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) observed the strike and according to HDBA president Imdad Unnar and general secretary K.B. Leghari, they held a general body meeting of lawyers against the Lahore incident. “We believe there should be no wukala and judges gardi,” said Leghari.
A meeting of the Barrister Society of Pakistan was held in the wake of the Lahore incident last night.
It adopted a motion moved by barrister Shabbir Shah, condemning storming of the court and observed that there should be no strike in support of hooliganism by lawyers.
Two options were presented in the said motion before the members: whether they condemned storming of the court and opposed the strike or whether they supported lawyers’ conduct and called for strike.
Only one member of the society voted in favour of the conduct of lawyers and called for strike.
Meanwhile, Awami Jamhoori Party president Amanullah Shaikh, Abrar Kazi and others in a joint statement on Tuesday condemned the shameful assault in Lahore by lawyers and termed it the worst example of hooliganism against entire judicial system of Pakistan.
They said it was repetition of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah’s infamous episode and demanded a suo motu action against the lawyers involved.
Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017