Black coats lock up black cameras

Two journalists were locked up by lawyers in a bar room for recording statements of a litigant whose property case has been pending since 1993.
Per details, Tauqeer Ahmed of Dawn News and Amir Sohail of FM-103 were recording statements of Nazir Ahmed outside the court premises when a few lawyers manhandled the two reporters and told them to leave the court premises. However the reporters resisted the unlawful demands of the black coats. Upon refusal to comply, the reporters were detained for hours in a bar room where they were forced to part with their recordings of Nazir’s grievances.The Lahore Court Reporters Association (LCRA) lodged a complaint with the Lahore Bar’s Association’s office bearers and some senior lawyers got the reporters released as a result.
Earlier Nazir had told the reporters that his case was pending since 1993 even though a National Judicial Policy (NJP) had been statuted .The NJP ordered that district courts shall dispose of cases speedily and justly. He concluded that the lawyers representing both sides were unnecessarily complicating the case to extract higher fees. Meanwhile the lawyers accused that the reporters were aggravating the situation by provoking the litigants against them.