Pakistani lawyers face nation’s ire for violent attack on hospital

Pakistani lawyers appear to be left with few supporters outside of their community as the nation continues to condemn their violent attack on Punjab Institute of Cardiology which led to death of three patients.

An anti-terrorism court has sent over 40 lawyers to jail on judicial remand for attacking doctors and ransacking a cardiac hospital in eastern city of Lahore.

The city’s Shadman area police booked over 250 lawyers who stormed the hospital apparently due to a dispute with doctors where a member of the legal fraternity was denied preferential treatment.

As the national TV channels began showing images of the shocking attacks and bystanders shared video clips of the lawyers’ storming of the hospital, and their setting vehicles on fire, people took to the social media to express their disgust with utter lack of respect for law and order.

While several commentators pointed out lawyer’s fall from their respectable profession as a force of the law, others’ noted their descent into infamy from a high point a decade ago when their protest march restored former chief justice of Pakistan.

“The restoration of an independent judiciary through a movement spearheaded by the lawyers provided them a sense of empowerment. A small number of euphoric lawyers subsequently started resorting to lawlessness for their own benefit. This was the time when the elder members of the community should have reined them in,” an editorial in Pakistan Today newspaper, headed by seasoned journalist Arif Nizami, noted.

“But keen to win bar elections, they decided to look the other way. The errant section of the community beat up police, helped criminals escape, tortured media reporters and at times did not spare even the litigants. They attacked members of the judiciary to seek verdicts of their choice. The acts of intransigence were often ignored,” the editorial added.

Meanwhile, the international media accounts expressed disbelief that the lawyers community could indulge is such blatant violence against a medical facility.

The Pakistan Today editorial also took the ruling PTI to task for promoting a political culture of abusive verbal attacks against opponents.

Dawn, Pakistan’s leading newspaper, noted in an editorial “Violent Lawyers” that it was not a spontaneous act.

“This was a pre-planned assault, with the mob — some of its members carrying sticks and guns — descending upon the hospital en masse, determined to wreak havoc,” the editorial said while condemning the attack.

Several people contrasted the behavior of Punjab lawyers with founder of the nation Quaid-e-Azam, one of the most successful lawyers and brilliant legal minds of his time who never compromised on the law and principles.

The attack has also made government a target of criticism for its lack of governance and inability to troubleshoot problems before they get out of hand.

The attack has also put Prime Minister Imran Khan in tough spot as one of the lawyers who took part in the lawyers’ protest is his nephew Hassaan Niazi.

Niazi is seen in video clips as throwing stones at police and damaging their vehicle.

Later, the prime minister’s nephew, whose father is close to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N party, condemned the lawyer’s turning to violence and apologized.

The lawyer tweeted that he felt ashamed of himself and that his support and protest was limited to the initiation of legal action against the concerned doctors.

But his apology has not been enough to placate people troubled by the black coat’s violent mindset.

Senior lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan has called Hassaan’s case is a litmus test for Imran Khan’s credibility, saying that his license to practice law should be cancelled by the Bar Council.

But far from issuing any reprimand, the Bar Council has announced boycott of courts and given a call for strike, which continues for the second day.

Lawyers stormed the hospital in reaction to a video that went viral on social media on Tuesday, in which a doctor is seen narrating an encounter with some lawyers in front of a group of medical and paramedical staff. According to the doctor in the video, a group of lawyers had gone to the inspector general of police and told him to charge “two doctors.”

He narrated that the Inspector General had refused while the lawyers had urged him to press charges, saying “they could save face” that way.