Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Tuesday directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to chalk out a comprehensive security plan for all courts and judges across Punjab and submit a compliance report along with the plan within seven days. On the LHC CJ’s orders, LHC Registrar Sohail Nasir wrote a letter to the IGP regretting that police have failed to provide adequate security to judicial officers, courtrooms and court premises in Punjab, which is evident from two recent attacks in the district court, Lahore and district court, Gujrat in which four men were killed and several others injured. The letter reminded the IGP, “This is not the first occasion, security lapses in court premises have been noticed and pointed out in the past as well and even then incidents are going on, which apparently speak about the non-serious efforts of police”.
Nasir said that taking serious notice of security lapses, the LHC CJ gave seven instructions/guidelines to the IGP regarding the security plan. The letter quoted the LHC CJ as directing, “Comprehensive security plans of all court premises and judicial officers, on district to district basis, will be chalked out under direct supervision of RPOs, CCPOs and CPOs for the whole province. Before finalising security plans, a meeting will be held with district and sessions judges while taking on board other stakeholders of the bar associations concerned”. The letter said, “There will be permanent monitoring of performance of officers/officials to be assigned duties of security of courts premises and judicial officers. The judicial officers who are engaged with exclusive criminal work, will be provided additional security,” the letter said. “Naib courts attached with courts will also be trained subject to their skills to meet security issues at time of any hot pursuit,” the letter said. “Reports along with copies of the security plans, so prepared on district to districts basis, will be sent to this court within a period of seven days”, the letter ordered the IGP.
The letter said, “On receipt of reports and security plans, a meeting will be convened in this court to be chaired by the LHC CJ, which will be attended by RPOs, CCPOs and CPOs from all over Punjab.”
Judiciary continues strike against poor security arrangements: The entire Lahore district judiciary on Tuesday continued their strike against poor security arrangements in sessions and other court premises in the provincial headquarters, which caused the murder of Zeeshan Butt and Imran Butt in the witness box in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Haji Ahmed on Saturday. Judges only heard cases of urgent nature such as habeas corpus and bail matters in their chambers. On the other hand, in order to express solidarity with the judiciary, the legal fraternity of Lahore vowed to observe a strike for an indefinite period until implementation on their demands regarding arrangements of foolproof security in court premises in Lahore.
