KARACHI: Lawyers change tactics, vow to continue struggle
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 14: Lawyers across the country will observe a one-hour token strike from Thursday till their convention scheduled to be held in Lahore on March 17 decides on the future course of action.
Addressing a press conference at the Sindh Bar Council office here, Supreme Court Bar Association President Muneer A. Malik, Pakistan Bar Council member Rasheed A. Razvi, SHC vice-chairman Mohammad Amin Lakhani and Karachi Bar Association President Iftikhar Javed Qazi said the token protest would be held from 10.3am0 to 11.30am.
Besides, two advocates in every bar association will observe a six-hour hunger strike from 10amto 4pm. In the Sindh High Court Bar Association, SBC member Noor Naz Agha and another lawyer would launch the protest in the SHCBA bar room.
The SCBA chief, who is a member of the lawyers’ panel defending Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, said the association has sought to join the Supreme Judicial Council proceedings as a party but no order has yet been passed on it.
Giving a resume of the Tuesday’s proceedings, he said neither Justice Iftikhar nor his counsel have been furnished copies of the necessary documents filed along with the reference. They reserved the right to submit a detailed rejoinder after receiving copies. Justice Iftikhar, he said, did not and would not succumb to pressure.
Advocate Malik said the SJC had passed no order about media coverage of the proceedings during Tuesday’s session and the reported warning might have been issued subsequently. However, he and other Bar representatives assured that they would defend media persons free of cost if any action was initiated against them for reporting the lawyers struggle and Justice Iftikhar’s defence before the SJC.
SBC member Shafi Chandio called for cancellation of Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan’s licence for defending the reference. Noor Naz Agha called for ascertaining Justice Rana Bhagwandas’s schedule to return home.
Earlier in the day, SHCBA members, including PBC members Abul Inam and Yaseen Khan Azad, formed a human chain to demonstrate their resolve to uphold the independence of the judiciary. Several lawyers led by Rasheed Razvi and Abdul Hafeez Lakho marched to the Sindh Assembly building before dispersing.
Our Reporter Adds: Member Pakistan Bar Council Abul Inam, speaking at the general body meeting, said the issue required a sustainable long term protest movement and asked participants to be prepared.
He said litigants and those being kept in the lock ups were the main sufferers in the strike. He stressed the need to follow the decisions taken by the leading organisations of lawyers including Pakistan Bar Council, Supreme Court Association and Sindh Bar Council, to maintain discipline and unity among lawyers.
Announcing the new strategy, Abul Inam said an All Pakistan Lawyers’ Convention would be held on March 17, where the next line of action would be decided.
He said that what President Musharraf did with the Chief Justice of Pakistan was extremely condemnable and what the government was doing now with the CJP was also unconstitutional, illegal and immoral.
Another PBC member, Rasheed A. Rizvi appreciated the KBA’s role for upholding the honour of the judiciary and said that lawyers must be prepared for a long struggle and willing to make sacrifices for a long term protest movement.
He vowed their movement would continue till the independence of the judiciary was restored.
Yasin Azad, another PBC member, said the lawyers’ struggle was against a dictator and would continue till the acceptance of their demands. He said that the lawyers had shown a unity that should be maintained at all costs for upholding the dignity of judiciary and strengthen democratic institutions.
Sindh Bar Council Vice Chairman Mohammad Amin Lakhani said the lawyers still considered Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as the Chief Justice of Pakistan. He said the KBA’s role was praiseworthy for taking up the issue so forcefully and added that government had not succeed in influencing the judiciary and lawyers even by using the state’s machinery.
The KBA President Iftikhar Javed Qazi asked lawyers to maintain discipline and unity in their ranks and be prepared for the next line of action to be decided by lawyers’ organisations at the central level. He also hailed the media’s role.
The KBA General Secretary, Naeem Qureshi, presented a resolution to take disciplinary action against four members of the bar including Mehfooz Yar Khan, Aftab Yar Khan, Shafqat Kamalani and Mohammad Bakhsh for, what he said, was violation of KBA rules. The general body unanimously approved the resolution and raised slogans against those trying to weaken the foundations of lawyers’ unity.
KARACHI, March 14: Lawyers across the country will observe a one-hour token strike from Thursday till their convention scheduled to be held in Lahore on March 17 decides on the future course of action.
