LAHORE: A five-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday gave the last opportunity to High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Multan President Sher Zaman Qureshi for appearing before it on August 11.
The bench observed that if he failed to appear on the next hearing, his arrest warrants would be issued.
The HCBA Multan president is being proceeded against for being rude to an LHC judge at the Multan bench.
LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is heading the bench while Justice Muhammad Anwaarul Haq, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza are its members.
At the outset of the hearing on Wednesday evening, the LHCB office-bearers including President Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali appeared before the bench and requested for adjourning the matter for two weeks.
However, the bench reminded them that they undertook on the last hearing that Sher Zaman Qureshi would appear before the bench on August 2.
To which, the office-bearers briefed that the HCBA-Multan had passed a resolution that Sher Zaman Qureshi would not appear before the bench.
At this, the bench said that it exercised restraint on the last hearing but the issue was being politicised. How come a person could say that he would not appear before the court, it added. The bench further observed that the entire system was being held hostage for an individual.
However, the bench adjourned further hearing till August 11 and gave the final opportunity to Sher Zaman Qureshi for appearing before it. The bench also noted that it had taken administrative notice of lawyers' hooliganism on the court premises early Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, dozens of lawyers gathered outside the chief justice courtroom at about 11 am on Wednesday where the bench was scheduled to take up the matter against Sher Zaman Qureshi.
The lawyers chanted slogans against the LHC chief justice and in favour of Sher Zaman Qureshi.
Later on, they went inside the courtroom and kept chanting slogans for some time. But, they dispersed peacefully after it was learnt that the bench would not take up the matter due to the death of Justice Faisal Zaman Khan's wife.
It is pertinent to mention here that on July 24, Sher Zaman Qureshi and Advocate Syed Qaisar Abbas Kazmi, along with others, initially misbehaved with Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan and obstructed the judicial proceedings at the Multan bench, and afterwards vandalised and ransacked the court premises and ripped off the name-plate of the judge.
After the incident, the chief justice had withdrawn judges working at the Multan Bench and posted them to the Principal Seat, Lahore. Later on, in view of the problems of the litigants, the chief justice restored the Multan registry from July 27 and judges resumed their work there from July 31.
A larger bench was constituted to proceed against the delinquent lawyers, under the law of contempt and High Court Rules and Orders for suspension and/or removal of their practice of the LHC.
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