24/11/22
Law Secretary’s Achal Sethi’s complaint to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, seeking action under the Advocates Act, 1961, against three senior Kashmiri lawyers is unprecedented and pregnant with consequences for Kashmir’s 33-year-long separatist movement. All the three, accused of ‘professional misconduct’ and anti-national motivation, have served as Presidents of Kashmir’s High Court Bar Association (HCBA).
The latest action against the three leading advocates could well end up in cancellation of their licences if the High Court’s Disciplinary Committee is not satisfied with their explanations. It can bury the separatist activism in the Bar forever.
While senior advocate Mian Abdul Qayoom has been inclined towards the separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Nazir Ahmad Ronga has lived in close proximity to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Ghulam Nabi Thoker alias Shaheen has also been a high profile separatist.
For 10 years, from 1993 to 2003, the HCBA functioned as a constituent of the General Council of the secessionist conglomerate ‘All-party Hurriyat Conference’ (APHC). Like the APHC, which comprised 26 political, religious, social and other organisations, including a representative union of the Jammu & Kashmir Government employees, the HCBA called for “resolution of the Kashmir dispute as per the UN resolutions of 1948-49 or tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris”.
Like the APHC, the HCBA too campaigned against the alleged human rights violations by the Police and security forces against the people of Kashmir, visited the residences of the militants killed in encounters with floral tributes, contested detentions of militants and separatists in different courts and left no stone unturned to paint India, its security forces and institutions black. It enjoyed unflinching support of the separatists and the militants. At least on one occasion, a Pakistan-based jihadist outfit issued a diktat, asking a particular candidate’s rivals to withdraw nominations from the Presidential election.
When a delegation of the Pakistani journalists visited the old High Court complex in Srinagar during Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s first term as Chief Minister, the slogans at the premises included “Yehan kya chalega: Nizaam-e-Mustafa”.
During his cross-examination by advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad, in the HCBA’s contempt case against the Kot Bhalwal Jail Superintendent Mirza Saleem Beg on 7 April, 2010, Qayoom said audaciously in the court of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir that he didn’t consider himself as an Indian citizen. According to a report in a local newspaper, he also asserted that he did not believe in the Indian Constitution.
Notwithstanding hundreds of such statements and demonstrations, no government disputed Qayoom or his colleagues’ credentials as licensed legal practitioners. Until today, the government has never banned either the APHC or the HCBA.
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http://brighterkashmir.com/hcs-disciplinary-committee-puts-mian-qayoom-2-more-lawyers-on-notice
Mian Abdul Qayoom
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 