islamabad - The legal community has expressed its dismay over poor security arrangements at the Islamabad district courts premises particularly after withdrawal of snipers from the area.

The community has demanded from the district administration to take immediate notice of the situation and take proper security measures by deploying personnel of Rangers and Frontier Constabulary (FC) to ensure protection of judges and lawyers as well as the hundreds of litigants visiting the area everyday to pursue their legal affairs.

Talking to The Nation, President Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) Syed Javed Akbar Shah Advocate expressed his dissatisfaction over present security arrangements at district courts Islamabad.  “The district administration has erected small walls and left the judge, lawyers and litigants at the mercy of terrorists and other criminal elements,” added the president of IHCBA.

He highlighted that the walls are so small that weapons could be easily thrown inside the premises and could be used for any subversive activities.

President of district bar association (DBA) Riyasat Ali Azad informed that after March 3 incident of gun and suicide attack at district courts which claimed lives of 11 people including a district and sessions judge and injured 29 other people, few steps were taken to improve the security of the area.

However, with the passage of time, the authorities started to withdraw the security measures which were taken earlier. Snipers were also removed from the premises putting the life of the judges and visitors of the area at stake.

Azad added that they have written to the deputy commissioner (DC) Islamabad to take measures for proper deployment of personnel of law enforcing agencies. He added that district and sessions judge (East) held a meeting with the DC and informed him about the concerns of lawyers. The DB president said that he himself held meeting with the officials of special branch asking them to improve security arrangements for the district courts premises in F-8. Secretary General of DBA Khurshid Butt Advocate also expressed serious concerns over the matter.

He informed that the authorities had established a security monitoring system which became useless in the absence of power back-up leading to the possibility of any untoward incident during the power outage. Khurshid was of the view that it is very difficult to take adequate security arrangements due to commercial activities in the area. Therefore, he said that it is better to relocate the district courts to a proper judicial complex.