Lawyers ‘Dhusthooree Fasaana’ panel discussions to begin tonight

‘Dhusthooree Fasaanaa’, the initiative spearheaded by lawyers to raise public awareness on the judiciary and the issues of the judiciary, is to begin on Wednesday night.

The first of the series of panel discussions will begin at 9.15pm in Salt Café. The discussion will be open to public and attendees will be able to question the panel as well.

Former Attorney General Husnu Al-Suood, former Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem and former legal head at Elections Commission Haneefa Khalid will be the panelists in Wednesday’s panel.

Suood will speak on loss of judiciary, legal capacity and authority, while Shameem will talk on sentencing in absentia. Haneefa is to speak on delivering same sentence for same cases.

The panel discussions are the latest in the endeavors undertaken by lawyers to address the issues in the judicial justice system. They had submitted a petition to Supreme Court and Attorney General calling to address the said issues. The petition was rejected by Supreme Court but accepted by AG Office.

The Supreme Court had resorted to suspending the 54 lawyers that had signed the petition. Two additional lawyers had signed the petition; however, they were already under suspension at the time.

Supreme Court had reversed their decision for 13 lawyers.

Lawyer Mahfooz Saeed, who spearheaded the petition, said that they wanted to express the concern's over the judiciary; from how hearings are being scheduled to the 'unjust' sentencings being given out.

Furthermore, Mahfooz said that the petition noted the Prosecutor General and Attorney General failing to fulfill their responsibilities, as well as concerns over "action being taken against lawyers without a valid reason".

He added that their work has "nothing to do with proving anything to anyone," and that they began the work in order to reform things within the judiciary.

The Department of Judicial Administration (DJA) had said that the lawyers were in violation of the Judicature Act, lawyers' pledge and Court regulations, by submitting the 'unlawful document’.

Lawyers had vowed to carry out their mission until a solution had been found to the deeply entrenched issues in the nation’s judiciary.