Bullied

EVER since the restoration of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, incidents of lawyers’ scuffle with the staff of other departments have increased. There was a scene with the staff of the Revenue department Mianwali and then a similar incident at Faisalabad, soon it was followed by the scene with the Police at Sargodha when a cop insulted a senior lawyer and then the incident at Lahore where a judge Family Court Lahore faced denigration. The incident at Lahore where an ASI was beaten up by the black coats is the latest one of the series of such incidents.

There are always two sides to a picture and the same is true of situations where you have to strike a balance between who is right and who is wrong. The analysis of the sudden change in lawyers’ behavior toward officials of other departments, prima facie, brings three possible explanations. One, that as upholders of justice they want to leave no stone unturned in order to eradicate corruption and unfair practices. Two, that having earned public’s sympathy as a consequence of CJ’s restoration they have, perhaps, gone out of their mind and hence the improper behavior. The third possibility is a situation that affirms both the above situations.

No prudent mind would advocate lawyers’ behavior toward the Revenue staff or the police official, more so when its footage was telecast by several TV channels. Corruption of Revenue department and atrocities of police find no equal in our country, I highly approve of any action that should be taken against lawyers if they are found guilty in these incidents and would even go on to say that their license to appear as a pleader in the court of law should be canceled. However, the inquiry should be conducted in a clean way without any prejudice to any side with an opportunity given to both sides to prove their innocence because reliance cannot be placed at the footage of our electronic media which is best at giving its own meanings to a situation while the reality is otherwise.