ISLAMABAD - Thousands of litigants visiting Islamabad District Courts in search of justice have been facing a number of problems and immense mental torture due to continuous strike of lawyers for the last one week.
Due to the strike, the litigants are facing many problems as no hearing of their cases could be held and they have to return to their homes with only dates of the next hearings. Last week, the legal community had announced to hold a protest against recommendations of attorney general of Pakistan about judges rotation policy in the federal capital and demolition of chambers of lawyers at district courts. The lawyers of the federal capital strongly protested against Capital Development Authority (CDA) operation against encroachment in F-8 Sector District Courts, Islamabad.
Due to their protest, judges also remained besieged.
Later, within two days of the demolition of 21 chambers at the district courts in F-8, the lawyers have again constructed around 50 chambers in different parts of the court premises. But, this did not end the miseries of the litigants as the lawyers have also been on strike for over a week, demanding a rotation policy for the lower judiciary judges. Under the rotation policy, judges would be transferred out of the capital and those from other provinces would be posted to Islamabad to avoid chances of alleged nexus among the adjudicators, lawyers and litigants.
However, CDA had demolished unauthorized chambers at the district courts at F-8 Markaz a few days ago.
During the operation against encroachments, 21 chambers illegally constructed on footpaths and in the emergency exit of the district court building were razed by the CDA. On the next day, the legal community locked down the district courts and ‘detained’ some judges in a protest against the demolition of the chambers. They declared the district courts a no-go area and also shut down a block housing 20 courtrooms. They alleged that the drive against encroachment was planned to disrupt their strike against the government’s proposal for transferring lower court judges to ministries and departments of the federal government.
However, some of the lawyers requesting anonymity expressed their reservations over reconstruction of around 50 chambers saying that it was unfortunate that lawyers have erected chambers in those areas which were clear in the past. They said that the chambers have been constructed in the parking area of former excise and taxation department.
There was a shed under which litigants used to sit but now chambers have also been constructed there. At a vacant place where children of separated or divided families used to meet their parents, the lawyers also constructed chambers.
On the other hand, secretary general of District Bar Association Khurshid Ahmad Butt claimed that chambers had already been constructed in all those places.
He added that they were making efforts to introduce a rotation policy for the subordinate judiciary. There are 70 judges and in April, they had filed an application in the Supreme Court that lower court judges should not serve in Islamabad for more than three years and should not be appointed at the home station at all. Khurshid maintained that the chief justice of Pakistan considered their request and directed the attorney general to form a committee to formulate a rotation policy for the subordinate judiciary. However, only those lawyers who had represented the judges in the apex court were included in the committee. As a result, they had announced the strike.
He continued saying that the CDA had informed lawyers that the chambers were demolished on the orders of the sessions judges. Now, he said that they were observing a strike and on the other hand judges are also saying that they would go on a strike. The DB secretary general said that they knew that litigants were suffering but they had decided to continue their strike as their demand was genuine. In response to a query, he told that only those chambers were reconstructed which were demolished on the orders of judges. He said that in the past lawyers constructed chambers on a football ground but after a suo motu notice by the Supreme Court it was decided that no more chambers would be built. He added that they were sitting there on a temporary basis because a building for the district courts was already constructed in G-10 but the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had been working in that building since 2010.