Islamabad: Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on Saturday condemned lawyers’ storming of Lahore’s Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) last week and called it “tragic, unbelievable and shocking.”

He hoped “better sense will prevail” in the aftermath of the incident.

While addressing a national conference on expeditious justice in the federal capital, the top judge of the country said the attack on Punjab Institute of Cardiology on Wednesday also offered an opportunity for introspection and self accountability.

“Our hearts and our minds reach out to the victims and their families and we hope and pray all concerned would like to uphold the values attached to the legal profession as well as the medical profession,” said Khosa.

This was the chief justice’s first response since Wednesday’s incident as people were raising voices and demanding of the chief justice to take suo motu on the tragic incident.

Khosa, however, said he could not comment more on the incident as the matter was sub-judice at the Lahore High Court (LHC).

Before the Chief Justice, a number of judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts have also condemned the lawyers’ barbaric attack on hospital in which a number of patients died and damage worth millions of rupees caused to the hospital.

A LHC Division Bench’s also expressed its dismay and wonder over how lawyers could attack a medical facility.

Hearing four petitions filed for the release of the arrested lawyers, a two-judge bench comprising Justice Ali Baqir Najafi and Justice Anwarul Haq earlier on Friday said their heads bowed in shame over the disgraceful actions committed by the legal fraternity.

“How dare you attack a hospital?” Justice Anwarul Haq asked the lawyer representatives, asking them to justify the actions of the rioting lawyers.

He asked what steps would have been taken if the lawyers had attacked the bar council instead of PIC.

Meanwhile, lawyers continued to boycott courts and the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) announced it would observe a ‘Black Day’ against the attack on a Lahore cardiac hospital on Monday.

According to Punjab Institute of Cardiology’s Executive Director, Dr Saqib Shafi the hospital had suffered losses to the tune of Rs70 million (Dh1,658,910) as a result of the lawyers’ assault.

We are trying to resume operations in the emergency department, he said.

Till now, more than 80 lawyers have been arrested in connection to the storming of the PIC in Lahore and for damaging public property.

Lawyers insist the strike is in response to the “partial and biased” conduct of local police and the Punjab administration, as well as to protest the action taken by the Islamabad High Court against the secretary-general of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association.