Lawyers’ Role
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd.)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Witnessed by many, including police officials, Mumtaz Qadri committed premeditated murder in broad daylight. He confessed to his heinous crime in a court of law and was sentenced to death by an authorized adjudicator after due legal process.
An uproar against the judgment by religious zealots was expected, but not from the lawyers community. They were hardly expected to stage protest rallies against the verdict. Was there any miscarriage of judgment at any stage that prompted them to come out on the streets? Or, do they want that the law should not take its course and a murderer be not brought to book? I thought the lawyers’ role in society was to assist the courts in administering justice and not to hamper the process of law.
A convict has the right to appeal and lawyers could assist Qadri in that regard. They can and should fight the battle legally in the court room and not on the streets. Who should know about this most fundamental statute than the lawyers themselves? The proper course of action is to argue a case in the court rather than fret and fume in public in favor of a condemned assassin.
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