• Clash with police, but force backs off and allows demo to continue
• Chant slogans, carry placards for their demands
• Registrar prohibited rallies within high court premises
• Lights switched off at bar room as SHCBA divided over issue
KARACHI: Many lawyers in Karachi managed to enter the premises of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday after scuffling with police personnel and staged a demonstration against the 27th Amendment despite the instructions of the SHC registrar not to use its premises for protests and rallies.
The protesting lawyers held the demonstration at an open space on the premises of the SHC after the lights of the new bar room of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) — the original venue for the action — were switched off as there was a division within the body over the issue.
Addressing the gathering, the lawyers’ leadership strongly criticised the enactment of the amendment and vowed to continue their protests for independence of judiciary and rule of law.
They also strongly condemned the establishment the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) and asserted that the disputed amendment had undermined the authority of the Supreme Court as well as weakened the constitutional structure and higher judiciary.
Internal dispute
Last week, SHCBA Secretary Mirza Sarfaraz Ahmed had announced that the bar was holding a lawyers’ convention against the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments on Nov 22 at the new bar room of the association.
Thereafter, a resolution was passed in an emergent meeting of the SHCBA managing committee, headed by its president Sarfaraz Ali Metlo, stating that its secretary had acted on his own without the body’s authorisation as both constitutional amendments were a matter of national importance. It added that the issue fell within the executive domain of the managing committee.
On Nov 20, the SHC registrar also sent a letter to the Sindh Bar Council (SBC) as well as to the SHCBA president and secretary.
It read that the SHC premises were meant for “dispensation of justice” and could not be used on any pretext for launching rallies, protests, chanting slogans and delivering speeches as these actions would “not only undermine its sanctity, but also attract felonious liability exposing the perpetrators to disciplinary action”.
The registrar refrained them from organising the protest within the SHC premises.
Later, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) announced that it would organise a lawyers’ convention on Saturday outside the SHC premises near the passport office in Saddar.
Dozens of lawyers gathered at the City Courts on Saturday morning and later they staged a rally, reaching the venue of the convention after marching on various thoroughfares.
Slogans chanted
The protesting lawyers chanted slogans against the government and amendments, carrying placards and banners inscribed with their demands.
Other lawyers also joined the participants of the rally outside the SHC and began their protest.
They scuffled with the police personnel, deputed at the SHC’s main gate, and entered the high court’s premises.
After the altercation, the police stepped back and let the protest continue, especially after reports that a few officers had suffered minor injuries.
The lawyers entered the new bar room of the SHCBA and continued their protest while chanting slogans against the amendment and the government.
They later took their demonstration outside the bar room after the electricity supply was switched off and various lawyers delivered speeches against the amendment.
KBA President Aamir Nawaz Warraich, General Secretary Ghulam Rehman Kora, SHCBA Secretary Mirza, former SBC vice chairman Syed Haider Imam Rizvi, Haseeb Jamali and others spoke on the occasion. (Dawn)