A group of Lahore Bar members here on Monday locked a courtroom of additional district and sessions judge Chaudhry Farrukh Hussain reportedly for not granting bail to a businessman involved in a financial malfeasance case. The judge was asking the counsel for the suspect to argue on merits of the case; however, the lawyers were reportedly insisting for bail of the accused involved in a Rs 35 million money transaction case.
The newly-elected secretary of Lahore Bar Association, Adeeb Aslam Bhindar pleaded the bail petition along with his associates. The lawyers got angry after the judge refused to grant their client bail. They allegedly used highly objectionable language against the judge. Sources said the infuriated lawyers put a padlock on courtroom's door.
An employee of the sessions court said that another group of lawyers, opponent of the bar's cabinet, broke open the courtroom, but the protesting lawyers again locked the courtroom. When contacted, LBA president Chaudhry Ishtiaq A. Khan denied the incident and said no office bearer of the bar was involved in misbehaving with the judge. He said some office-bearers had visited the court of Farrukh Hussain on getting information about a brawl between the judge and a group of lawyers. When the office bearers visited the judge, the courtroom was already locked by some lawyers. He said the bar's leaders tried to reconcile the dispute between the judge and lawyers, but failed. To take up the matter before bar members, the bar President has convened the general house meeting on Tuesday (today).