MULTAN/MAILSI Thirty-four judges of the lower judiciary, including an additional and sessions judge, tendered resignations in Multan and Mailsi against what they described as the unending terrorism by lawyers and the attack on the court Chief Justice Lahore High Court Khawaja Muhammad Sharif. The 29 resignations, a senior civil judge while remaining are the civil judges, came from District Multan where their current total strength is 38 while Additional District and Sessions Mailsi Judge Rana Muhammad Arif and four civil judges also joined the protest to show solidarity with the bench. The judges from Multan have sent the en bloc resignation to the LHC Registrar through District and Sessions Judge Multan and they include one senior and 28 civil judges. To show our solidarity with our honourable LHC CJ and condemn the act of lawyers in Lahore, we tender our en block resignation as protest, reads the collective resignation. The judges who tendered their resignations include: Senior Civil Judge Ch Ziaullah along with civil judges Haider Ameen, Muhammad Ayyaz Malik, Muhammad Ilyas, Aftab Ahmad Rai, Muhammad Mushtaq, Shakeel Ahmad Sipra, Malik Muhammad Asif, Farhan Shakoor, Khurram Shahzad, Muhammad Ali, Qurban Ali, Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, Zara Manzoor Malik, Syed Ali Waqas Bukhari, Kashif Rasheed, Tanveer Hussain, Zaffar Farid, Ejaz Ahmad, Muhammad Fiaz, Yousuf Abdul Rehman and Mudassir Hassan (Multan), Zulfiqar Naeem, Inzamam Ali Ranjha, Mian Muhammad Ahmad and Muhammad Ajmal (Shujabad), Asadullah Siraj, Muhammad Amjad Khan and Kamran Karamat (Jalalpur Pirwala). The resignations have come in reaction of an attack by the lawyers on the court of Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif on September 20 during which, the black coats broke windowpanes, shouted slogans and made derogatory remarks against the CJ while he was presiding over his court. There is alarming increase in the incidents of lawyers attacks on judges since the Faisalabad incident in April last, when a lawyer slapped a civil judge. The judges consider this incident a source of encouragement for the lawyers to attack the judicial officers. In the month of April 2010, one of our colleagues at Faisalabad was slapped by a lawyer while presiding over the court but no strict action was taken against him. Rather the matter was ended in a very humiliating way which encouraged other lawyers of the province, the resignation adds. It is important to note here that initially the lawyers hit judges only from lower courts while this time, they have chosen the head of Punjab judiciary and attacked his court on the issue of transfer of District and Sessions judge Lahore. The attack also spread an immediate wave of shock and panic among the judges, making them feel unsafe at their courtrooms. As members of judicial service, we feel that when the head of our department is not safe from the terrorists and over awing activities of the lawyers, then we consider ourselves in a very unsafe situation, states the resignation. And in Mailsi, Additional District and Sessions Judge Rana Muhammad Arif and four civil judges tendered resignations in solidarity with the Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif. Other judges are: Nusrat Ali Siddiqui, Imtiaz Ahmad Hinjra, Munawar Hussain and Tahir Mehmood. They condemned the attack on chief justice demanding an independent inquiry into the incident in order to expose 'behind the scenes conspirators. The senior judges refused to accept their resignations and directed them to continue with their duties. Mailsi Bar Association, meanwhile, expressed solidarity with the lawyers of Lahore. The lawyers did not appear in courts as a token of protest. President Bar Association Syed Shabbir Hussain Kazmi expressed dismay over this incident. He said the incident was a conspiracy to divide Bench and Bar. The legal fraternity held the judiciary in high regard and no lawyer could think of disrespecting the honourable judges. He pledged to respect laws, legal and judicial traditions, which had been handed down to them over the centuries.