Lawyers protest case registration against colleagues

LAHORE: The legal fraternity on Wednesday observed a strike to protest registration of a criminal case against an office-bearer of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) and other lawyers on charges of manhandling a police official on premises of the sessions court.

The aggressive lawyers kept the entrance gates of all subordinate courts locked almost for whole day and denied access to litigant public and police personnel. The jail vans carrying under-trial prisoners remained stranded outside the courts’ premises due to the lawyers’ protest.

The judges at Cantonment, Model Town, district courts, sessions and civil courts adjourned cases without any proceeding. The lawyers also took out a rally from Aiwan-i-Adl to Lahore High Court where they held a joint press conference along with representatives of Pakistan Bar Council and the high court bar association.

The bar leaders demanded of the police high-ups to immediately withdraw the FIR, which they claimed was a fabricated one. They also demanded transfer of Additional IG Malik Khuda Bukhsh accusing him of manipulating the bogus case against the lawyers. They announced continuing the protest till the demand was not met.

Islampura police had lodged an FIR against LBA Secretary Malik Maqsood Khokhar and others on charge of manhandling police inspector Munir Ahmad in a courtroom. The lawyers would also observe a boycott of courts on Thursday (today) against the decisions of National Judicial Policy Making Committee in respect of Section22-A and 22-B of Cr.P.C regarding entertainment of applications for registration of FIRs and establishment of model courts demanding the restoration of the previous position.