The Multan High Court Bar Association (MHCBA) on Wednesday expressed apprehension that the government could give a violent touch to the Jamia Hafsa issue to disturb chief justice's address to lawyers in Islamabad on May 26.
The president of the bar, Habib-ullah Shakir, and General Secretary Naveed Akhtar said that the legal fraternity believed that the issue in the federal capital had been created by the government. They expressed fear some kind of action under the pretext of the issue to target lawyers, sabotage their movement.
They said the responsibility of any such action would rest with the government. They said the lawyers' movement was for "a noble cause of independence of the judiciary and rule of law", and added that none of the thousands of participants in it had showed the slightest semblance of violence or had tried to create a law and order problem.
They said they were totally peaceful and the government should not try to provoke them. They said if the government thought it would repeat the May 12 incident in Islamabad on May 26, the lawyers would not let it happen.