LHC Multan bench restored after lawyers’ strike

MULTAN: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has ordered to restore the Multan bench, following a row between Justice Qasim Khan and High Court Bar Association President Sher Zaman Qureshi earlier this week.

As per the chief justice’s orders, the Multan bench is to start entertaining cases from Thursday (today), while the judges are scheduled to resume hearings from Monday (July 31).

Meanwhile, a five-member LHC larger bench on Wednesday issued show-cause notices to High Court Bar Association Multan President Sher Zaman and another lawyer for committing contempt of court by misbehaving with a judge, interfering and obstructing dispensation of justice on the premises of the LHC Multan Bench.

The bench, headed by the chief justice, observed that the action of the advocates was aimed at vandalising the court and bringing it into hatred and ridicule.

Lahore High Court Multan bench lawyers observe strike over row with judge

They also burnt effigies of the LHC chief justice and the judge they had agitated with

In an incident on July 24, both the lawyers along with a few others had allegedly misbehaved with Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan and obstructed judicial proceedings of his court at the Multan bench. They had also allegedly vandalised and ransacked the court premises and ripped off the name plate of the judge.

Expressing displeasure over the lawyers’ behaviour, the LHC chief justice had stopped the judges from working for the Multan bench. 

The chief justice had said that never in the history of LHC had anyone disrespected a judge’s name the way the protesting lawyers had. He had then directed the judges to hear cases in Lahore.

Meanwhile, lawyers, at the call of the Punjab Bar Council, are boycotting court proceedings in Multan, Muzaffargarh, Faisalabad and other adjoining districts in protest.