Ex-Pak Law Minister gets a severe shoe and stone thrashing

Pakistans former Law Minister, Dr. Sher Afgan Niazi, a die-hard supporter of President Pervez Musharraf, received a thorough thrashing from lawyers on Tuesday and was detained for almost five hours at an advocates house.Niazi was lashed with shoes, stones, rotten eggs, tomatoes, as hundreds of lawyers laid a siege around the building were he was kept.Some of the angry lawyers ripped off his clothes, shattered windowpanes of an ambulance in which he was trying to get into.He was literally placed on the floor of the vehicle to be saved from furious lawyers who surrounded the van from all sides.

Lahore, Apr.9 : Pakistan's former Law Minister, Dr. Sher Afgan Niazi, a die-hard supporter of President Pervez Musharraf, received a thorough thrashing from lawyers on Tuesday and was detained for almost five hours at an advocate's house.Niazi was lashed with shoes, stones, rotten eggs, tomatoes, as hundreds of lawyers laid a siege around the building were he was kept.Some of the angry lawyers ripped off his clothes, shattered windowpanes of an ambulance in which he was trying to get into.He was literally placed on the floor of the vehicle to be saved from furious lawyers who surrounded the van from all sides.

Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitazaz Ahsan had to rush to the spot to bring the agitation under control, but failed to calm the enraged lawyers and rescue Dr. Niazi, The Nation reported. Lawyers and other people even chased the ambulance and threw stones on it. So irritated was Ahsan by the ruckus that he announced that he was stepping down as the President of SCBA. He said the lawyers had caused irreparable loss to their movement to have the sacked judges restored.Police played the role of silent spectator for most of the time.

The entire drama started when Niazi visited the office of his relative, advocate Malik Noor Muhammad Awan, to consult him on a legal issue. News of his presence in the area spread like wild fire in the area and the building was then surrounded by hundreds of lawyers.The building had only one entrance and exit point, and the road was also blocked.Lawyers then burst into full-throated slogans against Pervez Musharraf and Niazi. The air was echoed with slogans of 'Go Musharraf Go', 'Niazi is our criminal'.

From that point, the situation took a turn for the worse.It was only after Ahsan arrived on the scene, that a semblance of normalcy was restored.A probe has been ordered into the incident.

ANI