The junior judicial officers serving in the provincial metropolis are feeling dejected and demoralised over the ‘lackluster’ approach of the authorities concerned to deal with the incidents of misbehavior and rowdiness they face at the hands of the lawyers while performing their duty.
Given seriousness of the issue, LHC Registrar Mushtaq Ahmad Ojla has recently asked all district & sessions judge in Punjab to furnish data of such incidents occurring during the last two years, along with their outcome.
The content of some of the complaints recently submitted by the judges to the high-ups shows that some of the lawyers, both men and women, have the audacity to force any district judge suspend the court in the middle of a hearing and attend them first in his chamber and hurling sexist remarks and abuses at women judges in courtrooms.
The judicial officers claim that their bosses — district & sessions judges or senior civil judges, usually discourage them when someones tries to report such incidents in writing, and rather advise them to reconcile with the offenders, especially in the episodes involving the sitting office-bearers of the bar.
A judge, on condition of anonymity, told media that every other day his fellow judges, including women officers, report incidents of lawyers’ misconduct in a WhatsApp group they established to connect with each other.
He claimed that mostly the complaining judge were advised by their bosses against narrating the abusive conduct of a lawyer verbatim in their complaints, only to reduce the gravity of the incident.District Bar President of Jhang threatened an Additional Session judge to go back to home or get himself transferred or abide by local lawyers advices.He forced to judge to oblige the lawyers
Another female judge wrote an open letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan and said that she was humiliated by lawyers and she wanted to commit suicide if it would not be "Haram" in the religion.She further said that she had wasted her time and energies in getting higher education.
He admitted that the judicial officers, in most of the cases, preferred “settlement” with the offending lawyers as such matters usually end up in their transfer and they did not want to lose posting in the provincial capital. He said most of the sessions judges also avoid any confrontation with the bar to prolong their posting in Lahore district.
“A lawyer appeared in my court from a certain law chamber and started shouting at me that why I dismissed his exparte case for maintenance? I asked him to file an appeal upon which he started misbehaving in the open court [the judge quoted what the lawyer had allegedly said, but the sentences are withheld by the newspaper]. I am sorry for repeating the obscene content, but it is necessary to know the level of filth we are facing,” a woman judge writes in her complaint.
A civil judge recently went on a long leave apparently in protest against lack of action by the authorities concerned on his complaint against a Lahore Bar Association office-bearer and others carrying allegations of “physical torture, abusive language, manhandling, threats to life and interference in judicial work”.
Narrating the incident in writing to the Lahore High Court, the judge says his court’s orderly, on the day of occurrence, repeatedly informed him in the middle of a hearing that the LBA’s office-bearer and some other lawyers were calling him in his chamber adjacent to the courtroom.
A lawyer also repeatedly came to the court reader and conveyed him that he (the judge) was being summoned by the bar’s office-bearer in the chamber, the judge adds.
As the situation got serious, the judge says, he along with his orderly went to the chamber to find six lawyers led by the bar secretary. He alleges that the bar’s leader forced him to pass a favourable order in a case with threat of “dire consequences”.
The judge claims when he refused to fulfill the illegal demand of the lawyers they not only orally abused him, but also roughed him up. On hearing the noise some other lawyers also came inside the chamber and he left the place, says the complaint.
He also mentioned verbatim the abuses allegedly hurled by the bar official, later in a reconciliatory meeting in the room of a senior civil judge in the presence of other bar leaders.
The bar claims that the dispute between the judge and the bar official stood resolved “amicably”, however, the complaint filed by the former suggests there was no compromise.
The judge also recounts another incident wherein a lawyer locked his courtroom for not getting a favourable decision.
A complaint filed by a woman civil judge accuses a woman lawyer of misbehaving in the court and hurling threats at the judge for not deciding an application in her favour.
“A lawyer namely (name withheld) harassed and pressurised me to issue an order without hearing the other counsel…threatening to kick me out of the courtroom,” another female judge shares her experience.
In the latest episode on last Saturday, a couple of lawyers physically assaulted a civil judge in the courtroom.
An official said a senior judge advised the victim civil judge against making public the details of the incident and assured him of action against the perpetrators within two days. However, no action has so far been taken despite a lapse of a week.
Open Letter: In an open letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and Lahore High Court chief justice, a woman Additional District & Session Judge from Punjab, Dr Sajida Ahmed, has said that it would have been better for her to rear cattle and make dung cakes in her village than joining the judiciary where she has to face disrespect and naked abuse in court every day from “so- called “ lawyers.
Frustrated at the treatment meted in Punjab to judges of the lower judiciary, including women, the judge went as far as to say that if Islam had not prohibited suicide, she would have taken her own life in front of the Supreme Court building because of the unending abuse, harassment and disrespect she and her colleagues had to face every day as a judge. She lamented that her seniors had done nothing to protect the district judges from this daily humiliation.
Dr Sajida Ahmed is the same courageous judge who during the judicial movement had openly supported the cause of an independent judiciary owing to which she had to face the ire of the then CJ LHC who transferred her to Bhakkar. She is presently Additional Session and District Judge, Fatehjang in Attock. “If ultimately I have to face disrespect and naked abuse in court while sitting as a lady judge by the so-called lawyers, it would have been far better that I had not wasted my 25 years of life in obtaining higher education and would have got married like normal Pakistani girls under 20s and not wasted the precious time and money of my parents in obtaining the higher education in Islamabad for 15 years. It would have been far better for the undersigned to rear the cattles, to make the dung cakes, to help out my agriculturist family and spend a life free of worries and agonies away from the lime-light of Islamabad….”
her letter read verbatim. “The noble profession of the lords has been hijacked by non-professionals and black sheep. The verbal as well as physical attacks of lawyers on the general public and police, in the premises of the courts and upon the presiding officers have become a routine matter under your nose.”
She lamented that unfortunately the fruits of the lawyers’ movement could not be reaped and we have and failed to achieve “the great cause of the rule of law”. She said that we witnessed it being tarnished when the whole world saw the lawyers of the Lahore Bar Association attacking the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology (PIC), where heart patients were running everywhere to save their lives.
She said that if the district judiciary’s grievances are not taken seriously, the judges will be compelled to write petitions to a number of international bodies such as the UN, the European Commission for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organisations, highlighting the issue of delinquent lawyers and their daily misconduct towards judges in Pakistan, especially in the district judiciary in Punjab.
She said that ironically, the Punjab district judiciary’s motto is ‘No respect--No work.’ She added that while the judges provide justice to all, there is no justice for the justice providers.
She wondered why criminal proceedings under section 228 PPC and the Contempt of Court Act 2012 are not initiated by the district judiciary against the disruptive, non-professional lawyers present in the district bars. She proceeded to respond to the question herself. “It is because the judges of the district judiciary know very well that they will not get any proper remedy from their superiors but instead will be scolded with comments such as ‘why do you not have the ability to handle such matters tactfully?’ or ‘why can’t you manage your own court?’.”
She asked: “Why are the references/complaints against such non-professional lawyers not sent to the Punjab Bar Council and Pakistan Bar Council for the temporary or permanent cancellation of their licenses, despite the seriousness of their daily misconduct and misbehaviour with the presiding officers,” she asked.
“Sir, (if) it is an offence against the public at large when a sitting judge is abused, threatened and beaten in the courts, then why should petitions against such arrogant lawyers not be sent to the provincial/federal ombudsman pleading workplace harassment,” she asked.
She added that if professional lawyers are under pressure from these non-professional lawyers, then why do they vote and support them when annual elections are held?
She disclosed that more than a dozen young and hard-working judges of the district judiciary in Punjab had passed away in recent years but no one had bothered to investigate the real causes of their deaths. The most recent death of the young Mr. Badi-uz-Zaman, senior civil judge Pakpattan, speaks volumes of the pressure faced by judges. Why, she asked, did he die due to a sudden brain haemorrhage?
“If we are supposed to be snubbed, abused, mentally and physically tortured by the lawyers during our office hours and you cannot protect our honour and save the dignity of our family members, then we are ready to surrender the extra perks given to us like our cars, laptops or the extra pay given to the judges of the district judiciary. But this should not be at the cost of our family honour and prestige when male and the female judges are continuously harassed in our courts,” she said, adding, “I feel desperate and frustrated and compelled to either burn all my educational degrees one by one in front of the honourable Lahore High Court or in front of the august Supreme Court of Pakistan as a protest so that no girl among a population of 23 Crore should dare to come and serve (this great nation with zeal and Iman). Being a daughter/sister/wife and mother, your honour and respect in this most prestigious and dignified profession is of no worth.”
However, on the complaints of a civil judge and a woman family judge, the bar cabinet suspended the offender lawyers’ memberships and referred the matter to the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) for further action.
Talking to media, LBA President G.A Khan Tariq claimed to have shown zero tolerance against such incidents. He said the number of the incidents involving lawyers’ misconduct in the courts had been very low during his tenure as compared to the past.
He said the misconduct or misbehaviour on part of the lawyers was not acceptable in any case. However, he argued that the judges too should not act like “activists or do politics”.
Asked about any progress in proceedings against the suspended lawyers, he said the PbBC was not practically functional for quite some time as its five-year term stood expired and fresh election was going to be held on Nov 28.
