The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday barred the Islamabad administration from further demolishing lawyers’ chambers built illegally until Tuesday (March 2) and issued notice to the attorney general of Pakistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

During the hearing of an appeal filed against orders of the capital administration to demolish lawyers’ chambers, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed also asked the lawyers not to pressurize the court. “The court will not be intimidated,” he said, and added, “We judges know the lawyers better. We ourselves were lawyers once. What kind of loose talk they indulge in against the courts, we are fully aware of that. They consider chambers as their property.”

He said it was strange that wherever some lawyers gathered, they started speaking against the courts. “Lawyers have no right to build their chambers on state land,” he said categorically.

Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi said on the occasion that five acres of land had been reserved for the chambers.

Advocate Shoaib Shaheen told the apex court that the lawyers had built their chambers on the land owned by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Later the hearing was adjourned until March 2.

Lawyers in Islamabad, on February 8, had forcibly shut down district courts as well as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) as they went berserk over bulldozing of their chambers built on footpaths and parking areas by the capital administration.

The protesting lawyers also barred the entry of litigants in the IHC premises besides bringing traffic on the adjacent Service Road to a halt.

The situation became so tense that Deputy Commissioner (DC) Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat had to reach Islamabad High Court to monitor the situation.

The lawyers also shouted slogans against IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah restricting the latter to his chamber.

Strangely, there was no presence of Special Security Police personnel at the time of lawyers’ entry in Chief Justice’s Block. In fact, the personnel arrived at the scene quite late, resulting in the exit of female staff from the Block due to heightened insecurity.

The protestors refused to talk to the administration until their chambers were rebuilt.