Lawyers manhandle mediamen at Karachi rally
KARACHI: A group of lawyers thrashed some mediapersons and damaged one of their vehicles and cameras during a rally here on Friday.
This episode occurred near Tibet Centre, where the lawyers were marching towards Mazar-e-Quaid on Friday morning. However, one of the rally participants in plainclothes asked a cameraman to remove his Suzuki car from the rally route. The altercation resulted in a scuffle and soon the two sides resorted to indiscriminate use of sticks. A few journalists, including cameramen of private TV channels and Geo TV reporter Tariq Moin, received bruises, while the shirt of a cameraman was torn up and the camera of a TV journalist broken.
After a brief lull the lawyers resumed their march towards Mazar-e-Quaid and the mediapersons also followed them. However, when the rally reached Old Numaish roundabout the two sides scuffled again.
The stick-fight continued for about half an hour prompting some senior lawyers to pacify the two sides. Surprisingly, the law enforcers remained silent spectators during the whole episode. Suddenly, some TV journalists covering the event shouted, ‘Boycott, boycott’.
Later, the mediapersons gathered at the Karachi Press Club, where a meeting of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) strongly condemned the attack by a section of lawyers on the mediapersons and termed it a conspiracy to sabotage the movement for rule of law in the country.
The PFUJ, in a statement demanded of the lawyers’ associations to take notice of the incident. It said the journalists’ community would foil all attempts to damage the movement for rule of law.
This is the third attempt to draw a wedge between journalists and lawyers. Earlier journalists were thrashed in Islamabad followed by a similar episode in Lahore. It could be an attempt to sabotage the campaign in which some lawyers were involved, it said.
The PFUJ warned the lawyers’ bodies that registration of an FIR against journalists, issuance of a press release by some office-bearers of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and announcement of boycott of courts against journalists are part of the conspiracy. It demanded of the KBA to take action against the “lawyers” involved in the incident.
The PFUJ reminded the lawyers’ community that as a representative body of journalists, it was the first to condemn the action against the chief justice of Pakistan.
The PFUJ backed the decisions taken in a protest meeting of the media representative bodies at the Karachi Press Club. The meeting decided to cover rallies of lawyers while wearing black armbands to register their peaceful protest. It also decided that the journalists would not lodge any FIR against the lawyers. A committee was also constituted to hold negotiations with senior members of the lawyers’ bodies
Meanwhile, Secretary-General Karachi Bar Association (KBA) strongly condemned Friday’s incident and said it was “pre-planned”. He alleged that government officials wanted to sabotage the peaceful rally of the lawyers. He said it was aimed to create a rift between journalists and the lawyers. He said a conspiracy was hatched against both the legal fraternity and the journalists’ community, which would be foiled. He appreciated the journalists for covering the event for the last one month.
He appealed to the lawyers community to remain calm as some anti-state elements wanted to sabotage the peaceful countrywide movement of the legal fraternity. Meanwhile, a general body meeting of the KBA, which was held with its President Javed Iftikhar Qazi in the chair, condemned the manhandling of journalists. The meeting also decided to form a joint investigation team, which would probe into the whole incident and take action against those involved in the episode.
Source: The News
Date:4/14/2007
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