Lawyers clash with police in Karachi; 9 arrested
Pakistani lawyers clashed with police in Karachi on Thursday when they tried to organise a protest march to demand reinstatement of judges deposed during last year's emergency rule, leaving at least three members of the legal fraternity injured and nine arrested.
Police fired teargas and resorted to baton-charge to disperse a large number of lawyers who gathered at the city courts to take out a rally to the busy M A Jinnah road. The lawyers hurled stones at police and shouted slogans.
Nine lawyers were arrested and three others injured in the police action, members of the local bar association said. The arrested lawyers were bundled into vans and whisked away.
The clashes erupted as deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry addressed lawyers of the Sindh High Court over phone.
Amidst reports that he might be freed from house arrest following the victory of the opposition PPP and PML-N in the general election, Chaudhry referred to President Pervez Musharraf's actions and said if one person could change the Constitution, there would be no need for a Parliament.
Chaudhry urged the new Parliament not to endorse actions taken during last year's emergency. If this was done, there would be bad consequences for the country, he said.
The people had spoken out in the polls against Musharraf's actions during emergency, he said.
An official of the Karachi Bar Association said among those arrested was its Secretary General Naeem Qureshi.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
Salman Rushdie's attacker Hadi Matar charged with attempted murder, assault
Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man who stabbed Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday, has been charged with 'attempted murder and assault in the second degree', the Chautauqua Country district attorney's office said on Saturday. Matar was born and raised in the US, the head of the local municipality, Ali Qassem Tahfa, told news agency AFP. Rushdie remained hospitalised in serious condition.
-
Monkeypox: WHO creates forum, asks public to propose new name for virus
The WHO has been in the process of renaming monkeypox since June alongside other efforts to urge the global community not to have any stereotypes around it. The zoonotic disease is disproportionately affecting men in sexual relationships with men and spreads via close contact.
-
Salman Rushdie: The free speech champion whose 'verses' put his life at risk
A Booker Prize that catapulted him to the pantheon of global literary stalwarts to a fatwa by Iran's Supreme Leader that forced him into hiding and years of death threats, Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie was both idolised and demonised for a singular trait that defined his life and works -- championing free speech. His memoir is Joseph Anton, named for the pseudonym he used while in hiding.
-
Iran's hardline newspapers praise Salman Rushdie's attacker Hadi Matar
While Iran is yet to make an official statement on the attack on 'The Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie, several hardline newspapers in the country on Saturday openly praiseRushdie'ser. Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and torso on Friday while onstage at a lecture in New York state by Hadi Matar, a man from Fairview, New Jersey, who had bought a pass to the event at the Chautauqua Institution.
-
Salman Rushdie had once complained about ‘too much security’: Report
Read French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo slams Salman Rushdie, who was attacked and stabbed on stage at a literary event here stabbing A bloodied Rushdie was airlifted from a field adjacent to the venue to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania where the 75-year-old writer underwent surgery. In 2001, Rushdie publicly complained about having too much security around him, The New York Post reported.
