LAHORE: A Supreme Court five-judge bench would take up on Wednesday (today) an appeal of Lahore High Court Bar Association-Multan chapter president Sher Zaman Qureshi for suspension of his non-bailable arrest warrants issued by a larger bench of the high court in a contempt matter.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar will head the larger bench along with Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.

Mr Qureshi filed his appeal through Supreme Court Bar Association president Rasheed A Rizvi, urging the apex court to suspend the operation of the arrest warrants and also the contempt proceedings initiated by the high court against him.

A larger bench of the LHC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had issued the non-bailable arrest warrants of Mr Qureshi for his constant failure to appear before it to join the contempt proceedings initiated on charges of misbehaving with a senior judge of the court at Multan seat and resorting to vandalism in an incident that occurred on July 24. On the two previous hearings of the contempt matter, Multan regional police officer sought time from the bench for the arrest and production of Mr Qureshi. The bench had adjourned its hearing till Sept 8.

On August 21, over a hundred lawyers had clashed with the security personnel and broken past the judges’ entry gate of the LHC soon after the issuance of arrest warrants for Mr Qureshi.

The police deployed to maintain law and order used water-cannon and teargas to push back the protesting lawyers.

The enraged lawyers also extended threats and harassed the media persons covering the incident for ‘biased’ reporting of the events. Leaders of different lawyers’ bodies, including the Pakistan Bar Council, had been trying to resolve the contempt matter amicably, advising the larger bench to exercise the maximum restraint. The leaders also condemned hooliganism by lawyers.

A number of non-political lawyers also criticised the hooliganism by the lawyers urging the elected representatives to play a positive role to protect the dignity of both the judiciary and the bar.

However, Mr Qureshi never appeared before the high court and his supporters staged protest on every date of hearing outside the chief justice’s court.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2017