HYDERABAD: The Sindh Bar Council (SBC) has suspended the licence of two lawyers, belonging to the Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA), and restrained them from entering the Bar room and wearing uniform for three months.
They have been accused of humiliating three undertrial prisoners in judicial custody outside a courtroom a couple of days back.
The decision was taken by the SBC executive committee, headed by Ayaz Tunio (who is also President of the High Court Bar Association, Hyderabad), on Aug 7.
According to HDBA General Secretary Masood Rasool Babar Memon, another lawyer, Anila Jessani has also been issued a show-cause notice to explain her conduct within the next 15 days because, according to the SBC, she was seen appreciating the “touching of feet by the handcuffed accused”.
Khuda Bux Leghari, an SBC member, had conveyed the complaint to the SBC secretary regarding conduct of advocates Talal Jumani and Shahzor Panhwar.
The matter pertained to three accused, Tanveer, Shahbaz and Maula Bux, who were forced to touch the feet of the two lawyers in the wake of a scuffle that took place last month outside the courtroom.
The three accused had scuffled with these two lawyers following registration of a case lodged by a lawyer’s son at the Hali Road police station regarding a petty dispute.
When the accused appeared before the court in July, they manhandled the two lawyers.
According to Masood, an FIR was registered against them at the Cantonment police station regarding this scuffle and they were arrested. But in the meantime, both the sides had reconciled over the matter lodged at the Hali Road police station and the subsequent fight in court.
On Aug 7, when the handcuffed accused were produced in court in the second case, they were supposed to read out a written apology to the two lawyers in the wake of settlement. But the lawyers forced the accused to touch their feet which they did and such video went viral on social media.
The accused were again slapped by some lawyers while Advocate Afzal Gujjar saved the accused from being thrashed.
HDBA President Ashar Majeed Khokhar and Masood Rasool Memon issued the two lawyers show-cause notices the same day, requiring them to explain their position within seven days. Later, the SBC executive committee, in its Aug 7 decision, noted that advocates Talal Jumani and Shahzor Panhwar assaulted the accused in judicial custody on the court premises and subjected them to humiliating treatment, thereby acting in clear violation of professional ethics, discipline and standards of conduct expected from members of the legal profession.
SBC noted that the most disgraceful thing to have happened was making persons in handcuffs touch the feet of lawyers and this matter brought disgrace to the ‘black coat and black tie’.
“Such system of justice is a feudal system and such an act has no place in Islam and modern jurisprudence,” said the SBC.
The council also held Talal Jumani and Shahzor Panhwar responsible for misconduct in the wake of a separate complaint by Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate-I Mrs Aliya Kaimkhani, according to SBC member K.B. Leghari.
He said that the magistrate’s complaint was already pending before SBC.
In the meantime, he said, the Aug 7 unpleasant incident occurred, too.
In the same Aug 7 decision, the SBC found that Talal Jumani was asked to remove black coat and tie while stepping into the witness box before the magistrate as a mark of respect for the profession in courtesy.
The lawyer appeared before court as an accused but he deliberately refused to comply with the directive of the magistrate to stand in the box and remove his coat.
Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2026
