LAHORE, Sept 30: Advocate Naseer Ahmad Bhutta was on Friday arrested on the charge of behaving contemptuously in the court of Lahore High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry. The court, however, allowed the senior lawyer to be freed when LHCBA secretary Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and others intervened and requested the chief justice to pardon him. Later, the LHCBA protested against the incident and adopted two resolutions, one of them seeking an assurance that such incidents would not take place in future.
Also a PML-N leader who was a joint candidate of the ARD and the MMA in a by-election for a seat to the National Assembly (NA-127), Lahore, Naseer Bhutta allegedly spoke rudely and brought the court to disrespect while arguing in the proceedings of an appeal moved by the PPP-backed candidate for the office of the Nishtar Town nazim, Dr Zahid Akram Nat.
Dr Zahid’s nomination papers were rejected by the returning officer on the objection raised by his rival Mian Mohammad Yunus Sheikh. The DRO also upheld the same decision while rejecting his appeal.
During the arguments the court reportedly asked the lawyer to avoid shouting and repeating his plea. But when the lawyer did not take care, the court held him responsible for the contemptuous behaviour. It called for the LHC security officials who took the lawyer in custody and handed him over to police.
When the news of Mr Bhutta’s arrest reached the bar, senior members, including S M Masood and LHCBA secretary Shehram, rushed to the court with the request that the lawyer be released. The court later ordered the police to set Mr Bhutta at liberty.
However, the episode provoked a majority members of the bar who got an emergency meeting of the LHCBA convened where hard-hitting speeches were delivered. Kazim Khan, Ahmad Awais and others said that the incident had further widened the gulf between the bench and the bar for which the latter could in no way be held responsible. They were of the view that the bar had been left alone in safeguarding the independence of the judiciary and holding its various components in respect.
Through two resolutions, the bar condemned the two incidents as an attack on the independent and professional working of lawyers and asked the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court to take remedial measures to ensure that such incidents did not take place in future.