- From rule of law, back to the law of the jungle
In civilised societies disputes are settled and perceived injustices to individuals or communities undone not by resort to force but through peaceful protests, debates in parliament or recourse to the courts of law — depending upon the nature of the issue. The lawyers are trained to get grievances resolved and justice delivered by invoking relevant laws, procedures and precedents. Those keen to join the legal profession are required to study law for a number of years followed by a period of internship under senior lawyers. The least one expects from the lawyers therefore is respect for law. Over the last few years incidents of lawyers attacking policemen, members of subordinate judiciary and newspaper reporters have appeared in the media making many wonder what has gone wrong during their education and training. What is highly worrisome is that bar associations frequently shield the black sheep in their community.
Newspaper reports tell of lawyers in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Sargodha resorting to violence to get High Court benches in their districts. The best way for them should have been to seek the remedy to their grievance by approaching the Lahore High Court or the Supreme Court, argue their case and abide by the verdict like their clients. What they have done instead is to boycott the district courts, lock the judges’ chambers, force a deputy commissioner to cease work and disrupt the city traffic.
Thee lawyers had announced their action plan a week before they started their agitation. In case Imran Khan had really agreed to get their demand accepted, as the lawyers claim, this was an irresponsible pre-election promise by the PTI leader. He had no business to intervene in the jurisdiction of the courts. That Punjab government did nothing over a week to persuade the lawyers to avoid recourse to agitation strengthens the opposition’s claim that the PTI government possesses little expertise other than blaming the past governments for whatever goes wrong. In short it is a single trick pony. This also further exposes the incompetence of the Punjab chief minister who played no role in resolving the issue as usual.