KARACHI, April 16: The journalists committee set up to resolve the row between them and the lawyers following Friday’s incident, observed on Monday that attempts to obstruct the resolve differences between them would amount to subverting the campaign underway to restore independence of the judiciary and vowed that nobody would be allowed to do so.

A joint meeting of representatives of journalists and lawyers was held at Karachi Press Club on Monday evening with President Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) Shamim-ur-Rehman in the chair. The meeting was attended by President Supreme Court Bar Association Munir A. Malik, President Sindh High Court Bar Association Abrar Hasan, General Secretary SHCBA Muner-ur-Rehman, Secretary General Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Mazhar Abbas, General Secretary KUJ Javaid Chaudhry, General Secretary Karachi Press Club Imtiaz Khan Faran, President A.T.J. Javaid Saba, General Secretary Faisal Aziz Khan, representatives of courts reporters Ali Hamza Khan, Asghar Umer, A.H Khanzada.

The speakers stressed the need that good working relations between lawyers and journalists were a must for the independence of judiciary.

President Supreme Court Bar Asssociation and one of the counsel of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftekhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Munir A Malik watched the footage of the unfortunate incident of April 13 incident. He termed it an unfortunate incident and said that nobody would be allowed to sabotage the lawyers’ campaign. President SHCBA Abrar Hasan also expressed similar views and assured that measures would be taken to ensure that similar incidents do not happen in future.

The journalists expressed their astonishment over the absence of representatives of Karachi Bar Association from the meeting, despite their earlier consent to such a meeting. They were of the view that certain elements wanted to prolong the differences between lawyers and journalists to damage the campaign for judiciary’s independence. They expressed their reservations over the attitude of some KBA members and said that court reporters could not perform their duties in the city courts.

Munir A. Malik assured the journalists that he would contact the KBA and play his role to resolve the matter. A meeting of the journalists would be held today (Tuesday) at 4 pm in the Karachi Press Club.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/17/2007