Lawyers weekly protest losing momentum

LAHORE - Young lawyers the driving force behind the lawyers movement mostly shied away from the weekly rally on Thursday. The lawyers due to this factor failed to put up an impressive show.
The absence of young lawyers raised many eye-brows in legal as well as political circles who are eager to bring youth back to re-invigorate the movement that has been loosing its impact fast.
Most of the young lawyers belong to Lahore Bar Association but their participation in the rally has been minimised over a month particularly after the Long March.
Only few hundred lawyers rallied on The Mall to press their demand for the reinstatement of deposed judges despite the fact that a considerable number of them were present inside Karachi Shuhada Hall to listen the speech of deposed Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif.
Previously, a huge participation of LBA lawyers snowballed rallies into a mammoth one but now this feature has vanished from weekly protest as only dozens of advocates from LBA joined the rally.
The young lawyers are of the view that the leadership don’t take them into confidence before making crucial decision regarding the movement.
“We had been tortured, thrown behind the bars in worst conditions. We sacrificed blood while many of us gave their lives. But at the end we were sidelined,” said a young lawyer having three years standing in the profession.
Another new entrant to profession cast doubts about the sincerity of his leadership but did not name anyone. He said he thought leadership had fallen prey to certain compulsions.
The political activities and members of civil society came to rescue for lawyers’ face saving as they had been outnumbered black-coats in Thursdays rallies over a month.
Activists of different political parties including PML-N, Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamat-e-Islami, Pakhtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party and Tehrik-e-Khaksar while wielding their party flags participated the rally. The political activists who were three times more than the lawyers, outnumbered them.