06 January 2005	Thursday	24 Ziqa'ad 1425

LAHORE, Jan 5: The Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Lahore Bar Association are joining hands to observe Jan 19 as black day over the dual offices of General Pervez Musharraf.

LHCBA president Ahmad Awais told Dawn on Wednesday that black flags would be hoisted over the bars' buildings and lawyers would appear in courts with black arm bands. The directive to all bar councils and associations across the country in this regard was issued by the Pakistan Bar Council at its meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday.

NOTICES SERVED: Justice Nasim Sikandar of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday served notices on the police department in a petition through which ASI Mubarik Ali alleged that the Sialkot DPO and SHO were restraining him from investigating a dacoity case for vested interests.

The petitioner alleged that they had stopped him from investigating the case because some of the accused in the case belonged to the village of Intelligence Bureau Inspector Sarwar Farooq.

According to the petitioner, he had succeeded in recovering most of the looted articles when he was asked by SHO Malik Mukhtar not to make any further progress. He also told the petitioner that the accused party was prepared to pay money for dispensing with the investigation.

The petitioner contended that he was summoned by the DPO and said that he was under instructions not to carry out the investigation. According to him, the DPO insulted him and threatened him with dismissal from service.