The offices of staff of five magistrates were unlocked on Friday, three days after being locked by a group of lawyers in protest against an order of the district and sessions judge mandating a new procedure for depositing traffic fines.
During the three days, the court staff had been sitting outside their offices.
A reliable source told The Express Tribune that the offices were locked on the consent of Advocate Mian Saeed, a former vice president of the Lahore bar Association. He said the Lahore High Court chief justice had asked Supreme Court Bar Association President Mian Israr to intervene. He said Israr had then phoned Mian Saeed who held a meeting with Senior Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Saeed Rafique before removing the locks.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Saeed confirmed that the SCBA president had called him in this regard and that he had met the senior judicial magistrate. However, he said most lawyers were still in favour of the old system.
A group of nearly 20 lawyers had locked the five rooms of magistrates’ staff at district courts. The lawyers had also thrashed the staff and pushed them out. They also threatened them with dire consequences if they removed the locks.
Under the new procedure ordered by the sessions judge, “the fines of … all kinds shall not be handled/collected by any staff member attached with courts of special judicial magistrates, rather fines shall be deposited in banks directly by the depositors and the receipt submitted to the court. The presiding officer shall examine the receipt and make it part of the record. The deposit registers … would be inspected by the senior most judicial magistrate. The inspection reports shall be presented in the first week of every month. Any dereliction shall entail strict action against the presiding officer concerned.”
This order was passed on February 21 and implemented on February 22.
Earlier, most of the fines were paid to court staff.
It was alleged that the staff of magistrates used to misappropriate the fines and shared them with some lawyers. Some LBA representatives were alleged to have received Rs2.5 million from the staff transferred by the sessions judge on receiving corruption complaints.
LBA General Secretary Kamran Bashir Mughal denied that any bar representative was involved.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2013.