rss feedLawyer Death Match in Pakistan
Posted by Harkavy at 7:37 AM, April 10, 2008
What's happening in Pakistan would ordinarily be poetic justice, in a vigilante sort of way: Lawyers are killing other lawyers.
But any country in which gangs of lawyers are rioting in the streets and are ambulance-calling instead of ambulance-chasing is in trouble.
This Shakespearean drama just shows how Pakistan, the world's sixth most populous country, is breaking down. That's a scary situation in a country that's armed with nukes (thanks to North Korea) and fighter jets (thanks to the U.S.).
As Jurist (the must-read, Pittsburgh-based legal-news site) says:
Lawyers supporting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who gathered to protest the Tuesday lawyers' beating in Lahore of former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi were confronted after their meeting by anti-Musharraf lawyers; fighting broke out near the city's main court complex which then spread to other areas. Most of the dead were killed when they were trapped in a nearby building containing some lawyers' offices that was set ablaze. A local bar association office was gutted.
Now I can think of some lawyers who need to be slapped up side the head — Alberto Gonzales comes to mind, and so does Cheney flunky David Addington — but this is ridiculous.
What if it spreads to New York City? We've got 23,000 members of the Bar right here. Think of the battles. Think of the lawsuits after the battles.
Praise Allah that our lawyers are too busy foreclosing on our mortgages and representing us against foreclosures to waste billable hours on rioting.
