Is the price of Double Graduate vote Fish&Mutton?
The election of Punjab Bar Council ended ln Punjab ,Pakistan up with the crackling of bullets and beating drums with Bhangra (dance).It was shocking ,some female advocate were seen on social media armed with riffle after announcement of results. However this time election was very thrilling, breathtaking and hair-raising. In PBC election, the degrees of more than 15 candidates who have been remained, Presidents, secretaries and members Punjab council were turned out to be fake. I tribute to Muhammad Qasim Khan Honorable Chief Justice, Lahore, High Court who decided the Writ Petition of Gulzar Butt Advocate etc. Against fake lawyers and his this action will prove to be a great milestone within the existing Bars Association and Judicial System. It will be stingy if I don’t praise for Vukla Aam Party and its head Amir Shah Advocate who are pointing out fake degree holders and are fit in a chain which is part of judicial system. So far, the critics have been criticizing only the candidates either of National and Provincial assemblies or of Bars Association. But in this article I decided to shed light on the character of those Double Graduates who cast their votes at the price of Fish and Mutton to those candidates who are God fathers and Sicilian mafia in lawyer’s community.
The Criticism of voters does not mean that the candidates have been relieved of their responsibilities. In the National Election, if a voter casts his vote to a candidate by eating Palao (biryani) or receiving a bag of flour, he belongs to the class of that society who is illiterate and poor. It is great pity and sadness when a double graduate, counting himself at the top rank of society, feels arrogant and proud of wearing BLACK COAT But votes at the price of FISH & MUTTON to those candidates who are non-professional, looters inside and outside the courts ,instigating the young Lawyers for attacks on Hospitals, police, courts and justice seekers.
When these candidates are succeeded, then their destiny/goal is to become Judges and Law Officers. For these reasons, they fail to assist properly to the learned courts, to give genius and inventive judgments.
No doubt still there is a majority of those lawyers in Bars who are dedicated, devoted, enthusiastic and zealous but unfortunately on the day of election do not come forward to vote for their professional and having good character, candidates, resultantly Mafia and fake degree holders win the election.
Raja Javed Iqbal Advocate who was the Chairman Election Board in Punjab Bar Council Election 2020, apprised while sitting at Bar Room ,at the cup of tea that only nine hundreds (900 )seniors lawyers out of Eleven thousands (11000 ) cast their votes in this election then how a person can expect a good leadership in the Bars. It was also a great rumors that a few Judges of higher courts has been campaigning for some candidate who were their favorite.
In the 1960s, a Major General was sitting in the Bar Room, the then President of Lahore Bar Association requested him that the sitting place in the bar is only for its members. Believe! I am writing this article with anguish, heartache and agony, as I have observed that nowadays non-members used to play cards, smoke cigarettes and used lawyer’s wash rooms while sitting in the Bar Rooms with learned Bar Members., The members of the Representative Body remain silent as they have to get votes.
When I joined this profession in the year of 1992, we were too cowardly to sit in front row chairs kept in the court. I appeared before his Lordship Mr Justice Shehram Sarwar Ch last week and observed that all the white haired lawyers were standing while young advocates had occupied of front row chairs. It is also worth mentioning that I was laced up with reference books and Major Act in the basket, every members was looking at me with strange eyes. Suddenly, two things came into my mind: number one may be it is considered futile exercise to refer previous Judgments or the Honorable courts do not weigh their previous decisions. But soon I realized that the lawyers had quitted reading/study as I observed that every lawyer picked up Major Act from the basket kept by me at table when its case was called up. Major Act is very commonly Book used in the court but unfortunately we the lawyers do not bother except few to keep it while appearing in the courts.
End of this article, it is huge demand by professional and seniors lawyers to His Lordship Gulzar Ahmed, the Chief Justice of Pakistan while elevating lawyers as judges would see their past, professionalism and competence.
RANA BAKHTIAR
The writer is Advocate Supreme Court & Former Deputy Prosecutor General Punjab
Email:info@bnblawfirm.co.uk
Is the price of double graduate vote fish&mutton?
BAR COUNCILS PRODUCE VOTERS NOT LAWYERS
Panama JIT Report
Farewell by the judges in the honour of Rana Bakhtiar
Pakistan convicts Americans in terror case
Deputy prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar, centre, is surrounded after he came out to announce the verdict handed down to five American students being held at the Sargodha jail in Punjab province.
Pakistan convicts Americans in terror case
A Pakistani court today sentenced five Americans to 10 years in jail each after finding them guilty of waging war against the state and funding a terrorist group, lawyers said. The five, aged 19 to 25, had been on trial in a closed court in a prison in the eastern city of Sargodha since March. The judge found them guilty of two charges, but acquitted them of three others. In a mostly secret trial, each defendant was handed concurrent sentences of 10 and five years and fined 70,000 rupees (Dh3,000). Both the defence and the prosecution vowed to appeal. Rana Bakhtiar, deputy prosecutor general for the Punjab provincial government, said he would appeal for 20-year sentences. The Americans – of Egyptian, Eritrean, Pakistani and Yemeni descent – were arrested in December in Sargodha on charges of plotting a terrorist attack. Umar Farooq, Waqar Hussain, Rami Zamzam, Ahmad Abdullah Mini and Amman Hassan Yammer had faced a maximum punishment of life in prison. “For criminal conspiracy they were sentenced to 10 years in prison plus 50,000 rupees fine,” the defence lawyer Hassan Katchela said. “For funding a banned terrorist organisation they were imprisoned for five years each plus 20,000 rupees fine.”
Defence lawyers and the prosecution said the clause included “waging war against Pakistan”. Pakistani officials have said the young men planned to travel to neighbouring Afghanistan and join up with Taliban-led militants fighting US and NATO troops. The defendants pleaded their innocence and said they had come to Pakistan to attend a wedding and wanted to travel onto Afghanistan to do humanitarian work. They accused the FBI and Pakistani police of torture, but the authorities have flatly denied any ill treatment.
Khalid Farooq, the Pakistani father of Farooq, spoke of his shock at the sentencing and vowed to go all the way with an appeal. “It is a matter of great disappointment. We were not expecting it,” he told reporters outside the jail in Sargodha. “We will go to every forum, from the high court to the international court. We will file an appeal in Lahore high court in seven days.” The sentencing came three days after the Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty to an attempted car bombing in Times Square, warning a New York courtroom of more attacks on the United States until it leaves Muslim lands. Investigators claimed that the Sargodha five planned to travel to South Waziristan, a training ground for militants in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt and a region targeted by a major military operation last year. Although the Pakistani government is a close ally in the US war on al Qa’eda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the country is gripped by widespread anti-Americanism and many blame deteriorating security on the alliance. *AFP
Pakistani court convicts 5 American terrorists to 10 years in jail
A Pakistani court sentenced five Americans on charges of criminal conspiracy and funding a banned terror organization. They grew up together in Alexandria, Virginia, and were arrested in December in Pakistan.
A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
A Pakistani court convicted five American citizens on terror charges Thursday. The men were fined and sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court. Their successful conviction heightens concerns about American Muslims and other westerners traveling to Pakistan to seek militant training and connect with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other extremist organizations.
The five men were arrested in the northeastern city of Sargodha after their families reported them missing in December. All grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. They have been charged on two counts, reports Reuters: criminal conspiracy and funding a banned terror organization. They were also fined a total $821.