CHAKWAL: District Bar Association (DBA) of Chakwal warned on Wednesday that it would stage protest if an FIR against one of its members was not quashed within two days.

“We would go to any extent for the sake of the sanctity of the black coat,” DBA President Advocate Amjad Bashir Mirza said while addressing a hurriedly-called meeting of the general body on Wednesday.

Police booked Advocate Zafran Zulfi along with 27 other nominated accused and 30 unknown people on charges of blocking roads on the premises of the District Complex and chanting slogans.

According to an application filed by a person named Mohammad Iqbal, a resident of Saba Mohra village, before the district police officer, the issue started on September 30 when a team of Dohman police station raided the house of Qammar Abbas, the elder son of Iqbal, to arrest his younger son Umar Abbas alias Jojo who was involved in various cases but was on bail.

Umar was not there following which the police picked up Qammar and his friend Umar Javed.

“When we contacted the police, they demanded us to help arrest Umar Jojo if we wanted to get Qammar Abbas and Umar Javed released,” the applicant stated.

He further claimed that police had registered a fake case against Umar Javed on October 3 on charges of fraud etc. while on Oct 5 they booked Qammar Abbas on the charge of possessing heroin weighing 1,020 grams. “Both these cases were registered when both men were already in police custody. We have CCTV footage of their arrests and tracking report of the car which was already at the police station but in the FIR it was falsely claimed that Qammar Abbas was driving the car and he was stopped by the police at Maswal Mor of Chakwal-Sohawa Road,” the applicant told Dawn.

After registration of these two cases, as many as 50 villagers came to the District Complex on Tuesday and submitted an application before the DPO. The villagers then gathered in a lawn at 1:30pm and recorded their protest before local journalists and then dispersed.

The villagers neither blocked any road nor chanted slogans but in the evening police registered a case against the villagers and Advocate Zafran Zulfi, stating that the latter led the villagers. Ironically, police mentioned in the FIR that the villagers blocked the road at 4pm while at that time they were not present on the premises of the District Complex.

Advocate Zafran Zulfi is the counsel for Qammar and Umar.

The registration of the FIR prompted the lawyers of Chakwal Bar to call an urgent meeting.

Addressing the participants the lawyers vowed to launch a protest if the FIR they termed bogus was not quashed within two days.

Repeated attempts were made to get the version of DPO retired Capt Wahid Mehmood but he did not respond. However the complainant, Syed Mohsin Raza insisted that they registered a genuine FIR.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2024