Lawyers not to support 'movement of anarchy'

LAHORE: The legal fraternity will not support 'any campaign aimed at spreading anarchy' in the country and that the announcement to lock down the federal capital in itself is 'illegal', senior lawyers maintained Friday.

Addressing a seminar here at the Lahore High Court Bar, senior lawyer Farooq H Naek said a few elements were spreading chaos in the name of politics, but the legal fraternity will not support any such campaign. "Democracy gives right to protest, but it doesn't allow character assassination," he added.

Azam Nazeer Tarar, a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, said locking down any city was legally a crime and the lawyers believed in supremacy of the law. He said the legal fraternity will not become part of any effort to derail democracy.

"We are not in favor of any lockdown. We support political protest, but it should be political," Tarar said.

Earlier today, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awami Muslim League (AML) held protests against the government in different cities. AML workers clashed with the law enforcement in Rawalpindi, while Bani Gala offered sight of a battlefield as PTI workers confronted police there.

Scores of workers of both political parties were arrested for disrupting law and order.

AML chief Sheikh Rasheed, who had pledged to hold a rally at Lal Haveli in Rawalpindi today, also surfaced from hiding, but could only make to the Committee Chowk. He disappeared after a brief address with workers and supporters there.

Similarly, PTI Imran Khan was confined to his Bani Gala residence and was not allowed to go to Rawalpindi. PTI workers coming all the way from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) clashed with police at Pakistan Chowk in Bani Gala prompting tear-gassing by the law enforcers.

Police also baton-charged the protesters and rounded up scores of them.

However, the twin cities began to return to normalcy as the dark fell, with some protesters taken into custody and majority dispersed.