Hats off to Bakhtawar
Bilal Sufi for having the courage although being himself a lawyer to point out
the failure of lawyers to play their role in the administration of justice in his
article ‘Time to Introspect’ in daily Dawn newspaper. It is real fact that the lower judiciary is in a terrible
shape after the lawyer’s movement. Lawyers having smelled power, encouraged by
the former Chief justice of Supreme Court
Mr iftikhar Chaudhry started considering themselves above the law. One
remembers the way they treated fellow lawyers Naeem Bokhari and Ahmed Raza
Qasuri and assaulted Ministers Tariq Azeem and Farooq Sattar and when they were
booked the honorable chief justice quashed the cases. Although the former chief
justice used to take suo moto action on flimsy matters and was very sensitive about
the dignity of superior court judges, he always looked the other way when lower
court judges were being humiliated by the lawyers. Now lawyers are more found
on strike than in courts on issues ranging from personal to international. They
never use Sunday to strike for their noble cause. In addition to harassing judges
they have started taking justice in their own hands by helping criminals escape
after cancellation of their bails. Here, I am reminded of an abstract of my satirical
article written three years back about the lower judiciary:
These courts follow the Rule Of Law(ers).
Lawyers have developed an effective system of overseeing that the law(er) takes
its own course, followed by the courts. A system of collective wisdom of
judges, lawyers, court officials and the willing case parties is successfully
administering justice. The courts although constitutionally report to the
superior courts, they have dotted reporting relationship with the Bar
Associations/Councils.
I hope that the lawyer’s community will rise to the occasion
at this important juncture of our history and devote themselves to the rule of
law and become soldiers of justice instead of any chief justice.
