PESHAWAR: The lawyers protesting the arrest of a member of their community following a scuf fle between him and a traf fic warden brought the capital city`s traffic to a standstill for more than an hour on Friday through the closure of a major artery.
The scuffle took place in Warsak Road area in the limits of the Michni Gate police station on Friday morning wherein both the police and lawyers accused each other of assault.
Following the incident, the police briefly detained the lawyer. Protesting the arrest, the legal fraternity closed the Khyber Road to traffic inconveniencing motorists and commuters.
An of ficial of the Michni Gate police station told Media that trafficofficer ShahWaliinsisted he was on duty on a Warsak Road security checkpoint when he saw a car drive in a wrong lane.
He said the car driver was identified as lawyer Farmanullah Khalil, a resident of Tehkal, who slapped a policeman across the face for signal-ing him to stop.
The ofhcial said the cops briefly detained the lawyer at the Michni Gate police station following the scuffle from where he was taken to the city police headquarters.
Interestingly, later police of ficials provided a ride to the detainedlawyerin their official vehicle and freed him on the Khyber Road in front of the protesting lawyers.
Traffic cop Shah Wali told reporters that the lawyer was violating lane discipline and got angry when he signaled him to stop.
He said the lawyer tried to tail an army convoy, which was leaving the area at that time, and quarreled with him when they asked to stop him.
The cop said the lawyer came out of his vehicle after he stopped him, and slapped him.He said another person who was accompanying him also slapped him.
The cop said upon stopping the vehicle, he ñrst greeted the lawyer and asked him not to proceed immediately but the latter ignored the plea and quarreled with him. However, Farmanullah Khalil blamed the cop for the brawl saying he tried to snatch car keys following an argument.
`We were in a hurry to reach the courts and tried to tail an army convoy leaving the area due to heavy trafñc but thepolice official misbehaved and kicked their vehicle,` he said.
Following the incidents, the lawyers blocked the city`s main traffic artery Khyber Road inconveniencing motorists going to cantonment area and University Road and to city from the Jamrud Road side as they remained stranded in traffic jam for a long time.
The police tried to diverttraffic to the Ring Road and other adjacent smaller arteries after the closure of the Khyber Road, which provides an easy access to motorists bound for Hayatabad and university from the city, also choked smaller roads immediately.
The protesting lawyers opened the Khyber Road follow-ing the release of Farmanullah. The Peshawar High Court Bar Association demanded impartial probe into the incident.
A statement issued here said PHCBA president Muzamil Khan chaired the emergency cabinet meeting, where the lawyers` body condemned the attitude of trafñc ofñcial and demanded impartial inquiry into the matter.
It added that it was not the duty of traf fic of ficial to misuse his powers.The association also demanded the suspension of the official until the completion of the inquiry, besides asking media to ay due role
