Lawyers should uphold the rule of law

Respect for law is a prerequisite to establishing peace in a society. Unfortunately, this fundamental principle is fast becoming a thing of the past. The lawyers, who are supposed to help in strengthening the writ of the law, have recently been seen resorting to acts of violence. It is really surprising that the students of law educated to find legal solutions to the problems for their clients should themselves adopt an illegal method to get their own problems resolved. Such incidents have occurred in the past but what was actually achieved then, by the instigators of violence. It only brought bad name to the practicing lawyers and badly damaged the image of the legal profession.  A new terminology Wakeelgardi has been coined by the media to further defame this profession. If the members of this noble profession, who fight for the rights of others in the courts of law, will themselves continue to indulge in illegal means to achieve their goals, can they expect due reverence from the outsiders. Reports about lawyers attacking policemen, members of subordinate judiciary and newspaper reporters shouldn’t appear any more in the media and the bar associations should take notice of such elements in the legal community and educate and train them to show civilized behavior. They must be taught to knock at the right door to get their grievances resolved. Regrettably, lawyers in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Sargodha resorted to violence to get High Court benches in their districts. If they had approached the Lahore High Court or the Supreme Court on this issue, results could have been different for them. Boycotting the district courts, locking the judges’ chambers, forcing a deputy commissioner to cease work and disrupting the city traffic didn’t behoove them. Resorting to violence is not a cultured way to settle disputes and undo injustice. What has gone wrong with their training to get complaints heard by going to appropriate legal forums?  Are they sadists who gain pleasure from the sufferings of innocent victims? Generally, ordinary people have violent impulses that are usually held in check. When their moral sense breaks down or is somehow blocked, they give in to their dark side. But lawyers are no ordinary people. They are highly educated. Experiments indicate that some violence is enabled by loss of self-control. The lawyers can’t sidestep the question of why they are motivated to be violent in the first place. The impulse has to come from somewhere and it may be traced to influence from some political groups. Professional legal code of conduct should be the guiding principle for them. Lawyers should act in the best interests of their profession and recognize their role in upholding the rule of law.