Lawyers announce strike, court boycott in Karachi over failure to register FIR against Rajab Butt

Karachi lawyers have announced a strike and a boycott of court proceedings at the City Court on Wednesday (tomorrow) after an FIR was not registered against YouTuber Rajab Butt.

President of the Karachi Bar Association, Aamir Waraich, said that no police officers would be allowed to enter the City Court on Wednesday.

He added that the protest would continue until an FIR is registered on the application submitted by the lawyers.

The lawyers have also called an emergency meeting at the City Court at 11:00 am on Wednesday. According to the Karachi Bar president, further action will be decided after the meeting.

Earlier, Aamir Waraich said that it came to their notice in the morning that a case had been registered against lawyers. He maintained that an FIR should also be registered on the lawyers’ complaint, warning that the scope of the protest would be expanded if this demand was not met.

Lawyers also staged a protest on MA Jinnah Road outside the City Court, which disrupted traffic flow on MA Jinnah Road and surrounding areas.

It may be recalled that earlier today, a case was registered against more than 15 lawyers in connection with an alleged assault on YouTuber Rajab Butt at the City Court a day earlier.

The FIR was lodged at the City Court police station by Rajab Butt’s counsel, Advocate Mian Ali Ashfaq.

The case includes charges of assault, physical violence, issuing death threats and other offences. Riyaz Ali Solangi, Fatah Chandio and others have been nominated in the case.

The FIR also states that an amount of Rs300,000 allegedly went missing during the incident.

It is worth noting that YouTuber Rajab Butt had visited the City Court yesterday for the hearing of his interim bail application.

Fellow YouTuber Nadeem Naniwala was also present with him at the time, when lawyers allegedly assaulted Rajab Butt within the court premises.

Lawyers have stated that following a previous court appearance, Rajab Butt used inappropriate and offensive language against lawyers in one of his vlogs.