KARACHI: For the last five days, Muhammad Shahid is visiting City Courts daily just to find the courts premises deserted due to the lawyers’ strike following their ongoing tussle with judicial officers.

“I came here on Friday, then on Saturday and then again on Monday, but there was no hearing of my case. Today also the courts are closed because the lawyers are on a strike,” the 48-year-old man, who is facing the trial in a drug case, told Dawn standing in the middle of the roundabout between buildings of the judicial blocks, which wore a completely deserted look.

Soaked in perspiration, he walks home tiredly. “It has been four years that the trial has not concluded yet.”

The case of Shahid has been coming up for hearing before a sessions court of district West every day of the past week. But, he says, on each date he visits the court, but lawyers and prosecutors do not turn up.

Lawyers end boycott of legal proceedings after SHC transfers district judge

Shahid is not alone. Hundreds of undertrials, including women, and a very large number of other litigants are facing the same hardship over the last one week.

There are over 69,800 civil, criminal and family cases pending trial in the five districts of Karachi — East, West, Central, South and Malir.

For the last one week, the files are being shifted from courtrooms to storerooms with no progress in such a huge number of the pending cases.

Lawyers-judiciary tussle

The lawyers are on a boycott of the legal proceedings since June 1, when they allegedly caught and got arrested a court’s watchman over his alleged involvement in criminal activities. But, they claimed that District and Sessions Judge (East) Khalid Hussain Shahani got him released from the City Courts police station.

To criticise the use of his judicial powers, the lawyers initially boycotted legal proceedings in district-East during which they also allegedly blocked the gate to the entrance of judges to the judicial complex.

A judicial officer told Dawn that Judge Shahani had to call in the police and Rangers personnel to get the gates opened “as the judges and judicial staff remained unlawfully confined and could not leave the courts till 7pm”.

On the other hand, Judge Shahani submitted a report to Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh stating that the lawyers wanted to ‘illegally encroach upon a piece of land, which was reserved for the judges’ parking’ on the city courts’ premises. When, the watchman, Faisal, stopped them from doing so, the lawyers subjected him to torture and got him arrested at the City Courts police station, maintained the district’s judicial head in his report.

However, the lawyers continued their boycott till Tuesday, demanding the CJ to transfer Judge Shahani.

“On Saturday, the lawyers crossed all the limits as they not only locked up the entrance gates for the judges of the District-East, but also locked up their courtrooms and chambers,” deplored another judicial officer.

Tug of war

The apparent tug of war between the judicial officers and the lawyers left thousands of litigants and undertrial prisoners in the limbo.

“The judicial lock-up is closed since June 1 because the prison officials are not bringing the custody of the undertrial prisoners from prisons for their appearance in courts,” a police official on security duty told Dawn.

Forty-year-old Syed Qaseemullah along with his four relatives sat in the sitting area under a shade in the middle of the judicial blocks, as they watched the deserted mazes of streets between the judicial blocks.

“It’s been four days. Our uncle has been arrested in a petty criminal case,” Qaseemullah told Dawn. “Every day the investigating officer brings my uncle for remand, we are told that there is a strike by lawyers. The IO takes back the custody to the police station. We don’t know when this strike will be over,” added the visibly frustrated man.

The litigants’ frustration is coupled with the increasing number of the pending cases in the metropolis that both the judiciary and lawyers need to attend to.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan vice chairperson Qazi Khizar sounded critical of both the bar and bench over this ongoing situation in the subordinate judiciary of the metropolis.

“There is a lack of the committed people in every institution and field, including the judiciary and lawyers. With this situation everywhere, it is ultimately the people, who are suffering in the end,” he deplored.

Karachi Bar Association’s general secretary Naeem Memon told Dawn that their strike’s had borne results, as the SHC had transferred Judge Shahani. “So, we have ended our strike”, he maintained.

An official SHC notification read: “Mr Khalid Hussain Shahani, District & Sessions Judge, Karachi (East) is directed to report to the High Court, with immediate effect.”

However, thousands of litigants are not the beneficiary of this whole episode, since their over 69,800 already pending cases’ have further been delayed by a whole one week.

A week could possibly secure disposal of dozens of cases, at least, had the bar and the bench worked with dedication to lessen burden of already suffering litigants.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2022