THUGGISH lawyers, acting on their worst impulses, have time and again brought collective shame upon their fraternity in this country. On Monday, they plumbed a new low. Enraged by the demolition of their chambers by the civic authorities in the nation’s capital, a mob of black coats — an expression that should ordinarily be a contradiction in terms — stormed the Islamabad High Court.

Shouting slogans and throwing stones, they broke the building’s windows and then proceeded to lay siege to the courtroom and the chamber of IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, rendering him virtually hostage for nearly three hours. Following the incident, the high court ordered suspension of all legal proceedings at the court, while the lawyers’ bodies announced a strike against the tearing down of the chambers.

The temerity of the rampaging black coats is astounding. The chambers in question were constructed illegally on a football ground, which was the justification for their being razed; the hooliganism in response was further violation of the law. And the fact that the lawyers’ associations, instead of condemning the violence by their colleagues and the aggression against the IHC chief justice, are choosing instead to focus on the demolition is evidence of a moral crisis within the members of the bar.

This situation can be seen as an unfortunate fallout of the lawyers’ movement from 2007 till 2009 which led the way in standing up to a military dictator’s illegal suspension of the then chief justice and ultimately succeeded in having him restored. That achievement, ironically a triumph of civil resistance, appears to have given rise to a certain hubris among sections of the fraternity in which there is no space for dissent nor respect for the law.

There have been umpteen incidents since then where members of the bar have demonstrated an utter lack of restraint and decency. Judges have been abused in court, threatened with physical violence and locked inside their chambers by advocates at odds with their rulings. Just a few days ago, a judge in Lahore was set upon by lawyers and appallingly humiliated in his courtroom. In December 2019, hundreds of lawyers attacked the Punjab Institute of Cardiology after videos emerged on social media showing some medics from the hospital mocking the black coats over a dispute between the two sides.

Earlier, in August 2017, several young lawyers barged into the courtroom of no less than the Lahore High Court chief justice where a five-judge bench was hearing a case against a group of advocates for ransacking a judges’ court. The intruders created a commotion and raised slogans against the judges present. It is high time the bar councils discipline their lawbreaking colleagues instead of condoning their actions on one pretext or another. Otherwise they will be equally responsible for the legal fraternity’s drift towards increasingly confrontational behaviour, and the deadly consequences that can ensue.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2021