ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: The lawyers’ body of the federal capital on Wednesday confined several judges to the district court and locked the doors of 40 courts for an indefinite period.

However, the judges were gotten released later in the evening.

The incident occurred when Civil Judge Umer Shabbir showed reluctance in issuing a contempt of court notice to the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for demolishing lawyers’ chambers being constructed on a football ground in F-8.

The lawyers had started constructing the chambers last month which did not go down well with the residents of the area who registered their protest at various forums.

It may be mentioned here that in September, some lawyers razed the security walls of the district courts and built new chambers instead.

They also constructed chambers on footpaths, litigants’ sitting area and all other open areas available in front of the courtrooms.

Therefore, a meeting between lawyers’ representatives, district court judges and IHC Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi was held. It was agreed that the chambers constructed in front of courtrooms would be demolished.

However, according to Chaudhry Haseeb, the secretary general of IHC bar association, the lawyers did not want chambers on the football ground to be razed. Therefore, they obtained a stay order on Friday.

“We then started demolishing the illegally-constructed chambers in front of the district courts. However, on Tuesday night, the CDA razed a few chambers on the football ground,” Mr Haseeb said.

On Wednesday, some 500 lawyers approached Civil Judge Umer Shabbir and asked him to issue a contempt of court notice to the CDA chairman for demolishing the chambers despite the stay order. Instead, Mr Shabbir left the courtroom and went to his chamber.

This infuriated the lawyers who raised slogans against the judges and locked many in the courtroom.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the acting district and sessions judge Wajid Ali called the IHC registrar office and informed him about the incident.

He said the lawyers were “not only threatening the learned judges but also chanting slogans against the district judiciary.”

The acting IHC chief justice, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan, then constituted a team asking it to visit the district court and submit a report.

The report stated that the lawyers’ community had constructed chambers on public property. The authority, in accordance with its rules, demolished some of the chambers which led to the incident.

The report also said that “when the above mentioned officers of the Islamabad High Court visited the spot (F-8 Markaz), double locks were lying on the court room doors.”

Furthermore, the IHC administration wrote a letter to Inspector General Islamabad and asked him to provide security to the judicial officers and open the locked courtrooms to ensure smooth proceedings by Thursday.

Syed Mohammad Anwar, the president Islamabad bar association, told Dawn that the lawyers had rightly locked the courtrooms, and they would remain closed till the chambers were reconstructed.

He said courts which did not have the power to implement their own orders should be shut down.

He also claimed that the lawyers had not encroached upon the football ground but had constructed the chambers in its surroundings.

On the other hand, Syed Nayyab Hassan Gardezi, the former president of IHC bar association, termed the incident unfortunate.

However, he held the government responsible for the suffering of lawyers and said there should be ample space to house junior lawyers’ chambers.

“If CDA was demolishing the chambers, the lawyers, instead of showing their anger towards judges, should have staged a protest in front of CDA head office,” he added.