On May 11, District and Sessions Judge Sadaf Khokhar's sign displayed at the court's RO filter plant prohibiting the sale of the water.
Given the lack of access to clean drinking water for those who frequent this court, the Malir Bar Association requested authorization to establish an RO plant in 2021.
The RO plant received a notification on May 11 informing it that its water could not be sold.
However, when the senior civil judge and supervisory officer Khurram Amin Khan paid a surprise visit to the RO facility last week, he discovered that a guy by the name of Hajan Ali was peddling packaged bottles of water from it. Hajan Ali informed the civil judge that he had a contract in place to sell the water with the current elected Malir Bar Association board. At the plant, the civil judge discovered bottles and packing materials.
The civil judge relayed this information to District and Sessions Judge Sadaf Khokhar, who then forwarded it up the system. In a letter dated May 13 to the Sindh High Court Registrar, Khokhar claimed that "distilled water is being sold commercially." She let the registrar know that she had put restrictions on the sale of water for profit. The RO plant is being maintained at the expense of the court and public exchequer, she mentioned.
The following day, on May 12, the District Bar Association declared a strike and convened an emergency general body meeting.
On Friday, attorneys from the Karachi Bar Association, the Malir Bar Association, the Karachi Bar Association, the Sindh High Court Bar Association, and the Sindh City Bar Association went on strike throughout Sindh.
Sindh High Court Bar Association president Saleem Mangrio and general secretary Amir Waraich submitted a request to remove the benches.
Due to the fear of being physically assaulted, court reporters were hesitant to report on these incidents after the strike.