KARACHI, Feb 19: Legal fraternity observed strike call and stayed away from the city courts on Monday in protest against the killing of lawyers and a judge in a suicide attack in Quetta.
Legal proceedings remained suspended and the under trial prisoners were returned to the jails without hearing.
The lawyers were wearing black armbands as a mark of their protest against the incident.
A protest general body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association was held at the court premises which was addressed by its president Iftikhar Javed Qazi, general secretary Naeem Qureshi, Salahuddin Gandapur, Nahid Afzal Khan, Zubair Ishaq, Iqbal Aqil, Musawir Khan, Farhad Khan, Shahadat Awan, Atiq Qureshi and condemned the cowardly act of bomb blast in Quetta. KBA vice president Qadir Khan, High Court Bar Association Joint Secretary A. Nafees Osmani, KBA Managing Committee Member M. Sakhi Ghazali also condemned the tragic incident.
Referring to the decisions of the Pakistan Bar Council and provincial bar councils, the KBA also announced to stage a sit-in on the M.A. Jinnah Road on Wednesday at noon.
The participants of the meeting said the government had failed to protect life and property of people even in courts which were considered to be the most protected area in the past.
They said Quetta blast was an ample proof of the government’s incompetence.
The KBA through some unanimously approved resolutions asked the government to increase the compensation amount from of Rs300,000 to Rs5,000,000 for heirs of each victim.
The officials concerned were asked to ensure presence of the police personnel in plain clothes at the courts and beef up the security.
The lawyers also criticised the government’s foreign policy and said the increasing number of terrorism acts in the country was a result of the wrong policies.
The meeting demanded early arrest of all those involved in terrorism and offered fateha for the departed souls and expressed sympathies with the bereaved families.
