National institutions were pitted against each other by paralyzing the whole judicial system, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Friday.
He made these remarks while proceeding on a suo motu notice along with Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday on police torture on lawyers at the Aiwan-e-Adl, Lahore. Punjab Police Inspector General Tariq Saleem Dogar appeared in court and said that Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Rao Sardar Ali could not appear in court due to illness. The CJP remarked that the case was very important, as the judicial system had been paralyzed due to the whole episode. Dogar said that some other people had joined the lawyers in attacking the office of the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice (CJ). He told the court that all judges, including the LHC CJ, were present in the court and police had to take immediate action to control the situation. Dogar said that Section 144 was imposed to avert any untoward incident.
“Had the element of favouritism not been behind the recruitments then incidents like this would have not occurred. Lawyers had also indulged in wrong doings. Attacking the court was an extremely inappropriate step. The responsibility for violating the sanctity of courts rested with lawyers”, the CJP observed. Justice Ramday expressed his anger at police officials for dancing on the streets after beating lawyers at the Aiwan-e-Adl. Superintendent of Police (SP) Mumtaz told the court that the station house officer (SHO) who had ordered the thrashing of lawyers had been suspended. The CJP expressed his displeasure over suspension of the SHO and said, “Suspensions and transfers make no difference. The entire judicial system had been paralyzed due to police. How was Section 144 slapped in the bar room and sessions court? If judges are sitting in the Supreme Court and Section 144 is imposed then will we all be arrested? A strategy should have been devised after the LHC CJ’s office was attacked.”
Punjab Advocate General Khawaja Haris told the court that directives had been issued for taking action against the police officials involved in thrashing lawyers. After hearing the arguments, the court adjourned the case’s hearing.
