In the last few days, Lahore lawyers resorted to violent protests, vandalising the High Court Chief Justice's chambers that led to a police crackdown, fought with the police at the main city thoroughfare, Sharea Quaid-e-Azam, and made provocative speeches-all because they said the District and Sessions Judge Zawar Ahmad Sheikh had been 'misbehaving' with them, and hence must be transferred.
He could misbehave with people elsewhere, but not in Lahore. For their part, showing solidarity with their brother judge, more than 1,200 members of the subordinate judiciary across Punjab tendered their resignations in protest against what they termed "illegal stance" of the lawyers and Lahore High Court decision to send Judge Sheikh on leave.
Whether the incident happened by design or coincidence, we do not know. This though is not the first incident of its kind. Worse things have happened before. To recall a couple of recent examples, two months ago , a Sheikhupura advocate got annoyed with the city's Additional District and Sessions Judge for rejecting the bail application of his client. An exchange of harsh words followed between the two and the advocate's son, also a legal practitioner, hurled a shoe at the judge, hitting him smack on the forehead.
In an earlier incident in March, a black coat slapped a Faisalabad civil judge, hearing a loan default case because he had refused to grant bail to the accused in the absence of a proper bail bond. There have been several other cases involving lawyers' intimidation of the judges. Senior Civil Judge Arif Hameed Sheikh reflected the frustration prevailing among his colleagues when he averred the other day that the judges could not work under pressure from the lawyers, who he said keep "bullying and humiliating us even as we are holding court."
Judges though are not alone in being subjected to the black coats' fury. Amazingly, even officers of the much-dreaded Punjab police have not escaped this community's wrath. There have been several incidents in which lawyers - in one instance involving vice president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Mian Shah Abbas, and four others - beat up police officers right on the High Court premises to free from their custody people accused of serious crimes. Media persons covering black coats' brutal behaviour have gotten thrashed, too. Indeed, annoying this special community is fraught with danger.
In the present case, the District Bar never explained what exactly Judge Sheikh, nearing retirement, had done that fell within the definition of misbehaviour. From the little pieces of information, appearing here and there, one gathers that the cause of dispute was not very different from the earlier incidents of shoe-throwing and slapping. And that the situation had been building up for a while because of the judge's uncompromising attitude. The black coats' pent up fury was waiting for an excuse to explode. That it got when one of them sought adjournment of a case to a later date under flimsy pretexts, which the judge rejected.
The former and fellow members of the Lahore District Bar Association went into a rage, demanding that the uncontrollable judge be transferred out of the LDBA's sight. They wouldn't rest until and unless High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif did not order his transfer. Sharif took his time to act, which brought the attack on his chambers. The demand was patently unreasonable, and hence most of the senior lawyers at the forefront of the legal fraternity's historic movement for the restoration of independent judiciary refused to support the agitation for the removal of a member of the subordinate judiciary.
There would be no takers of such bullying by lawyers in any civilised society. Unfortunately for some, professional solidarity came first. Ali Ahmad Kurd, who shot into prominence during the lawyers' movement and since its culmination had been living an uneventful life in Quetta, suddenly had a new cause to fight for.
This time, he alighted on the scene to lead an agitation for the transfer of a judge, who wouldn't defer to the wishes of district bar members. The agitation having spread to the Lahore High Court Bar Association, he delivered a fiery speech at LHCBA, lending full support to the punishment seeking campaign against Judge Zawar Sheikh. Encouraged, the black coats rejected a three-member committee the SC Chief Justice had set up to fix responsibility for the police action, making instead even higher demands.
Resolutions passed at a LHBA meeting on Sunday included a long list of demands, asking aside from the transfer of the 'errant' judge, removal of all judicial officers, who tendered their resignations and appointment of new judges to replace them, exemplary action against police for "torturing and humiliating" lawyers, withdrawal of all cases registered against them as well as removal of extra policemen from inside the High Court.
And last but not least, the LHBA wanted the resignation of the LHC Chief Justice. As regards police violence, it simply is unacceptable. Under no circumstances, the police should beat up protesters whether lawyers, teachers or clerks (sadly, not too long ago, police baton charges against protesting teachers and clerks elicited very little rebuke from the media and civil society).
The LHC Chief Justice diffused the situation on Tuesday by giving in to the lawyers. The judge at the centre of the dispute has been transferred and sent on a four-month leave, and his colleagues persuaded to withdraw their resignations. Given the present political atmosphere, perhaps, there was a danger that some interested quarters might want to use the increasing gulf between the bench and the bar to undermine the judiciary and make questionable its decisions in some high profile cases, pending before the apex court. Whatever the reason, it is an unsavoury compromise.
It goes without saying that the relationship between the bar and the bench needs to be harmonious for better administration of justice. However, if the judges remain in fear of the lawyers that means they will not be able to deliver free and fair decisions. Date fixing as well as acceptance or rejection of bail applications have a great bearing on legal proceedings. The transfer of Judge Zawar Shekih has put a new pressure on judges to make decisions on these issues at the urging of trial lawyers rather than case merits. It will hurt ordinary litigants' interest.
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