Lahore lawyers at war with media: Shazia case accused remanded in custody
By Wajih Ahmed Sheikh
LAHORE: Lawyers of the Lahore Bar Association turned their guns on the media when their colleague Advocate Chaudhry Naeem, who is the main accused in the Shazia murder case, was brought to the court of a magistrate here on Tuesday.
The magistrate granted three-day physical remand of Mr Naeem to police and adjourned the hearing till Feb 3. The wife and sister-in-law of Mr Naeem, also nominated in the FIR, obtained interim pre-arrest bails till Feb 3 from an additional district and sessions judge.
Scores of lawyers who had gathered in the court raised slogans against journalists and stopped them from covering the court proceedings. The Lahore Bar Association accused the media of having launched a ‘nefarious’ campaign against its former president.
Members of the bar claimed that the media was presenting the case in an unfair manner. They claimed that the girl had not been killed by employer or his family but had died after falling from stairs.
Some angry lawyers also tried to push media personnel out of court premises. Some of them cut camera cables of a few TV channels.
A general house meeting of the LBA, convened by its newly elected president Sajid Bashir at the civil courts, condemned what it termed biased reporting by the media in the case and vowed to deal with the media sternly.
It adopted a resolution against the media and announced that the lawyers would boycott courts on Wednesday in support of Naeem. The association also banned the entry of reporters of one TV channel into court premises.
Lawyers of Chaudhry Naeem claimed that Shazia suffered from a chronic disease and he got her treated by highly qualified doctors.
Talking to Dawn, Advocate G.A. Tariq said Shazia had fungus infection which caused wounds on her body and damaged her nails.
He said Naeem had repeatedly asked Amanat Masih, who had got her employed as a maid in his house, to take the girl back but he did not do so. He said Amanat had promised to take Shazia away after Christmas holidays, but never turned up.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/27/2010
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