Lawyers ransack new courts in Multan

MULTAN: Enraged crowd of lawyers on Wednesday ransacked the newly-constructed judicial complex in protest against shifting the district courts allegedly without making prior arrangements and facilities like sitting space.

A majority of female lawyers also participated in the protest, saying poor arrangements forced them to quit the profession due to distance and unavailability of transport between the old district courts and the new judicial complex.

Hundreds of lawyers led by Multan District Bar Association (DBA) president Yousaf Zubair, Multan High Court Bar Association (MHCBA) president Sher Zaman Qureshi, Syed Irfan Haider Shamsi, Naveed Hashmi and others assembled in front of old district courts and reached new judicial complex via buses.

The lawyers staged a demonstration outside the new judicial complex and then stormed it, ransacking the District and Sessions Court, civil judges’ courts and magistrate courts — over 50 rooms. They mob also broke mirrors, windowpanes and courts’ doors.

The protests, which began on Tuesday, continued on Wednesday as lawyers entered the sessions court after a scuffle with the police. Police tried to contain the protesting lawyers in front of the complex but they surrounded them and managed to enter the complex.

The lawyers then barged into the judicial complex and began smashing windows and doors of the sessions court with sticks. The lawyers maintained that although four or five months had been elapsed but their demands were not met as the new judicial complex does not house their chambers.

Lawyers said they were against the decision of shifting the courts and chambers from old district courts to new judicial complex until proper arrangements had not been completed. DBA president Yusuf Zubair said that they had given one-month deadline to the administration for completing necessary arrangements at new judicial complex but the administration did not pay heed in solving the complaints.

They dispersed after more than three hours of protest. Former president of MHCBA Khalid Ashraf Khan, Syed Irfan Haider Shamsi and Naveed Hashmi widely condemned shifting of district courts without proper arrangements.

The sessions and civil courts were shifted to the new judicial complex in November last but lawyers rejected this shifting. The construction of the judicial complex began in 2005 on 1,000 acres of land after the Asian Development Bank granted a loan under the Access to Justice Programme.