Shameful act

Doctor and lawyer, both are respectable professions in any society around the world, but it is very unfortunate in Pakistan a few of them from both the professions behaved like aggressors (“Several lawyers held for attacking Lahore hospital,” Dec.13, Gulf Today).

The attack on the Punjab Institute of Cardiology by 250 lawyers is highly condemnable.

Pakistan on Thursday levelled “treason” charges against the 250 lawyers who were part of a mob that stormed a hospital in the eastern city of Lahore the previous day, kicking and punching doctors and staff and trashing equipment and property, the police said. Under Pakistani laws, assaults on government buildings and other property can carry the charge of treason. Such cases are then handled by anti-terrorism courts, which were primarily set up to try suspects linked to acts of terrorism.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the charged 250 lawyers are in custody.

“We have arrested some lawyers and no one linked to the attack on the hospital will be spared,” said Zulfikar Hameed, the city’s police chief.

Two FIRs (first information reports) have been registered against more than 250 lawyers who attacked the Punjab Institute of Cardiology of Lahore, tortured doctors and attendants, and damaged hospital property and police vehicles.

The whole society in Pakistan is moving towards intolerance. Any person who has power or source attacks others. Nobody is above the law. Three persons lost their precious lives in lawyers’ attack on the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. It is very clear that lawyers are responsible for the death of the people.

Now the government will start investigation. It will set up a commission to establish who is the responsible. These are all delaying tactics.

The group of lawyers who are clearly responsible for their cowardly act on Punjab Institute of Cardiology should face criminal proceedings.

It is now government’s responsibility to provide justice to the people who lost their beloved in the deadly attack by the bunch of lawyers.

Asim Jahangir
By email