More than 30 lawyers have been booked including women law practitioners for going on rampage in the Islamabad High Court after demolition of their chambers.
According to the details, the FIR registered at the Ramna police station includes Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act besides mob attack causing a threat to life, vandalism, disrupting peace and other relevant clauses of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had demolished illegal structures built on the premises of the District and Sessions Court (DSC)” in the early hours of Monday.
The chambers were constructed on the footpath along with the iron grills outside the court of the district and sessions judge.
The lawyers barged into the Chief Justice Block, broke windows and shouted slogans against IHC CJ Athar Minallah outside his chamber, trapping him inside.
The IHC top judge was inside his chamber at the time, however, special security police troops were not present when the lawyers entered the block and arrived much later.
The premises of the Islamabad High Court had also been sealed.
After talks with CDA authorities, the lawyers presented six demands which are as follows:
- Immediate release of arrested lawyers
- Rebuilding of all chambers that were demolished by the administration
- Along with rebuilding, administration should pay Rs500,000 per chamber in compensation
- Transfer of Islamabad district commissioner, concerned superintendent of police and session judge from the capital
- Until the transfer of district courts, chambers for young lawyers be built on the land of a football ground in Sector F-8
- Ten acre land be allotted for lawyers’ chambers in the area where district courts are transferred.
Moreover, in a circular issued by IHC, it was stated that a reference would be filed in the Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) for suspension of licenses of the suspected lawyers.
The circular added that the case against the law practitioners has been registered while more than 20 lawyers including females have been nominated in the first information report (FIR).