LAHORE, May 22: Why do lawyers turn violent while lodging a protest over an issue? The question was put to seniors in the profession who gave different reasons for the violent behaviour prevailing among the legal community which was unthinkable some 10 years ago.
Recent incidents in Lahore and Pattoki and that of Gujranwala some months back show that once the lawyers get involved in a conflict, the local bars invariably throw weight behind their antagonising members. This is purely out of political expediency in which a rationale approach is usually overlooked. In the end, seniors and juniors join hands for 'unity' and 'solidarity'.
RECENT INCIDENTS: In Lahore the lawyers picked up a brawl first with a judicial magistrate during the hearing of a case and then extended their violent agitation to higher judicial officers. The matter ended with the transfer of the district and sessions judge.
In Pattoki, some lawyers clashed with revenue staff when they refused to meet their 'illegal demand'. The entire tehsil bar then thrashed revenue men.
The lawyers' agitation, which grew at the Kasur district level, is still continuing.
In Gujranwala, the lawyers physically clashed with excise staff and traffic police in winter last. An assistant excise officer had refused to register the tractor of a lawyer for want of required papers while, in the second incident, a traffic constable had challaned a rickshaw driver who was the relative of a lawyer.
In Gujrat, the local bar has been on strike for the last one month to press for the transfer of the district police officer who reportedly misbehaved with some lawyers.
The legal community's violent behaviour is also a threat for itself as it demonstrated during the Lahore bar elections early this year when its members created ugly scenes on the polling day.
CAUSES: Senior lawyers S M Masood, Tariq Aziz, Ahmad Awais, Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry, Arif Chaudhry, Azam Nazir Tarar, Pervez Inayat Malik, Malik Ghulam Rasool, Manzoor Ahmad Malik and some others gave a variety of reasons for the rising trend of conflict.
Some say this is a calculated move to harm the bench-bar relations. Others feel that some elements are attempting to affect lawyers' unity to weaken their struggle for the rule of law and independence of the judiciary. Some also point accusing fingers at incumbent managers of the judicial administration. Corruption in the subordinate judiciary, economic factor and absence of a policy on the expansion of the legal system are also the reasons spelt out by the seniors in the profession. Falling standards of the legal education, too, are attributed to the sorry state of affairs prevailing in the community.
The economic factor and passing out of hundreds of lawyers by private colleges with poor quality of education seem more convincing arguments.
As is the case with all other professions which have expanded without an official policy and national need, new lawyers enrolling every year indicate that the community has overwhelmingly been enlarged, which obviously finds juniors placed at a disadvantageous position.
"Corruption in lower courts and likings and disliking of judges further marginalize youngsters," a number of jurists said
The Punjab Bar Council used to enrol 40 to 50 lawyers a year up to late 1980s. With the private law colleges mushrooming, this number is now in hundreds. In 1995, the bar council enrolled 1,277 lawyers, in 1996 the number rose to 1,885, in 2000 it was 2,150, in 2001 the new entrants were 2,855, in 2002 they were 2,875 and in 2003, as many as 3,180 new lawyers entered the profession.
The total number of lawyers in 34 districts and 80 tehsils across the Punjab is now about 46,000. The Punjab Bar Council admitted new lawyers to the profession without a written test and interview during the 30 years beginning from 1973 when the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act was enacted. The reason was that the rules under the act were not framed during the period.
It was only in 2001 that the task of framing of the rules was completed and the issuance of professional licences followed written examination and interview from the next year. The admission of thousands of lawyers to the profession without proper training may have caused a difference of quality and behaviour. Bars, too, have not apparently taken care of things for political reasons.
This also goes for the Punjab Bar Council which is yet to refuse licence even to a single applicant and thus burdening the profession to the extent of a spillover that is infesting the entire community.