Lawyers in Multan went on strike on Thursday to mourn a colleague who was shot dead for defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy.
Gunmen stormed into the office of defence lawyer Rashid Rehman on Wednesday evening and opened indiscriminate firing, shooting him and two of his associates.
Rehman, 50, was pronounced dead in hospital.
“We are observing a strike to mourn and protest the killing of our colleague and no lawyer will appear in any court today,” said District Bar Association Multan President Sher Zaman Qureshi.
“We demand that the killers of Rashid Rehman be arrested immediately,” Qureshi said.
He said Rehman had told the association that he had received death threats and they had asked the police to provide him adequate security, but the request was declined.
“Rashid had informed us that he was being threatened by various people to stop defending the blasphemy case, otherwise he would be killed,” Qureshi said.
Rehman was representing Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University, who is accused of making derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammed in March 2013.
ew”‘>Ju�Re 8O���dhry remarked, “It is correct that the winning candidate cannot allow the petitions filed by defeated candidates to be decided in the court for five years. The judiciary has disposed off 18 out of 57 cases. We are admitting this petition for hearing and we will decide it too. All politicians pose to be democratic but they forget this after winning the election.”
All took a similar stance that it is under the high court’s jurisdiction to conduct hearing on interim decision of tribunals and had the decision been given on merit, the matter would have been resolved.
The hearing of the case was adjourned till the second week of June.
SC SEEKS REPLY FROM ECP OVER IMRAN’S PETITION: The SC has sought a reply from the ECP within 15 days on the petitions filed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, seeking verification of thumb impressions in four constituencies.
A three-member bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani took up the petitions for hearing on Thursday.
PTI’s counsel Hamid Khan contended that he had filed two petitions, adding that the ECP had not implemented the court’s order.
The CJP remarked, “Both petitions will be heard jointly. Let the ECP reply, then the matter will be reviewed.”
The hearing of the case was adjourned for 15 days.
Talking to reporters after the hearing, Khan said he demanded the verification of thumb impressions in four constituencies so that lapses may come to light. Imran said, “Wherever my representatives personally paid fee to get thumb impressions verified, a majority of the votes were found to be unverified.”
Imran said he still stands by his statement about returning officers’ involvement in rigging of 2013 polls.