ISLAMABAD: The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reminded the regulatory bodies of lawyers — the Pakistan Bar Council and Islamabad Bar Council — of their statutory obligation and urged them to discharge their responsibilities to ensure the rule of law.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, in a detailed letter written to the chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), Khushdil Khan, and the chairman of Islamabad Bar Council (IBC), Zulfiqar Ali Abbasi, shared the bitter experience of Feb 8 when some lawyers assaulted the Chief Justice block and made him hostage for several hours.

“It is probably unprecedented for a Chief Justice to be drawing the attention of regularities authorities towards grave misconduct of members of the legal fraternity that must already be in the knowledge of the frontline regulators,” the letter said.

“It was unthinkable that enrolled advocates dressed in uniform would storm the Islamabad High Court, violently vandalise its property and attempt to intimidate and threaten the Chief Justice and other Hon’ble Judges by keeping them detained for hours,” the letter said.

Sharing details of the unfortunate incident, Justice Minallah stated that on Feb 8, the IHC registrar informed him that about 150 lawyers, led by an IBC member and candidates contesting upcoming elections of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA), were marching towards the IHC building.

The letter said that senior superintendent of police and other senior police officers were present in the office of the registrar as they were apprehending a likely law and order situation.

The IHC chief justice termed it shocking that lawyers dressed in uniform rushed towards him raising slogans and shouting at the top of their voices.

“The SSP and other uniformed guards rushed out of the registrar office in an attempt to protect me (IHC CJ). As a Chief Justice, I felt that seeking protection of police officials from being harmed by the acts of enrolled advocates was an affront to the office I hold and thus they were ordered to leave.

“It was painful and disturbing to witness enrolled advocates brazenly vandalising the premises of the Chief Justice block and the chambers. They used whatever they could lay hands on, including fire extinguishers, to damage state property,” the letter said.

It added that “the unruly violent mob attempted to forcibly take me to the Bar room which I resisted. At about 10:45am other Hon’ble Judges reached the vandalised Chief Justice Block. They also failed in persuading the violent mob to conform to the code of conduct and etiquettes of their adopted profession. Along with other Hon’ble Judges I remained detained in my chambers till 2:30pm”.

Justice Minallah wrote that he stopped an imminent operation of the law enforcement agencies on the lawyers since “it could have reduced a constitutional court to a battleground and undermine the prestige and sanctity of an institution where justice is dispensed to all and sundry”.

The IHC Chief Justice compared this with an attack on Supreme Court of November 28, 1997, and termed it even “more grave in nature”.

He asked the regulators “should those who were involved in the aforementioned unimaginable misconduct be pardoned merely because they happen to be members of the Bar”?

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2021