A lawyer allegedly set fire to his courtroom seat in Pakistan’s Hyderabad city on Thursday in protest after a judge declined to pronounce a judgment that had been reserved for nearly 11 months, officials said.
Sikander Bhatti, who was representing one of the parties in the case, allegedly set his official court seat on fire following the announcement, according to officials.
The incident comes amid growing concerns over delays and a backlog of cases in Pakistan’s courts.
The dramatic incident took place after Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad Circuit Bench Justice Jawad Akbar Sawana said he would not issue the reserved judgment in a civil land dispute case from Nawabshah. Sikander Bhatti, who was representing one of the parties in the case, allegedly set his official court seat on fire following the announcement, according to officials. He said the association would conduct an inquiry into the incident, adding that several reserved judgments had been pending before Justice Sawana for months, leaving litigants frustrated. A court source said Bhatti was particularly agitated as the case involved his own family and concerned a land dispute that had been pending for several years in Nawabshah.
