March 22, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1428

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PESHAWAR, March 21: Arrangements have been completed for an all-Pakistan lawyers’ convention where central leaders of the lawyers’ community, particularly counsel for Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, will deliver speeches here on Thursday.

The convention, scheduled to commence at 10am on the premises of the Peshawar High Court, is being held under the aegis of the NWFP Bar Association, Peshawar High Court Bar Association and Peshawar District Bar Association.

Though members of the three bodies have announced that they have extended invitation to Justice Chaudhry, he is not expected to turn up.

Justice Chaudhry, however, has accepted an invitation to address a meeting of the PHCBA here on March 30.

“The chief justice has accepted our invitation to address the bar on March 30 and he would be received by the lawyers’ community at Attock Bridge on that day,” senior advocate Qazi Muhammad Anwer told Dawn.

The counsel for the suspended chief justice, including SCBA president Munir A. Malik, former president Hamid Khan, Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood and Ali Ahmad Kurd, were on their way to Peshawar to attend the convention.

The organisers have also extended invitation to the office-bearers of bar associations of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan and they are expected to attend the convention in a large number.

COMPLETE STRIKE: Meanwhile, on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association, lawyers observed an effective strike here on Wednesday and held a protest meeting.

The outgoing presidents of the PHCBA and PDBA, Syed Attique Shah and Fida Gul, respectively, PHCBA secretary-general Behlol Khattak and other leaders spoke the occasion.

They criticised the postponement of the proceedings of the reference against Justice Chaudhry to April 3 and said it was aimed at breaking the momentum of the movement launched by the lawyers in the country.

They said the government could not sabotage the ongoing movement.

The speakers said that they would continue their protest against the suspension of Justice Chaudhry and the filing of reference against him.

The participants said that they would accord rousing welcome to the chief justice when he visited Peshawar. They praised the judges for sacrificing their jobs for upholding the supremacy of the constitution.

Later, hundreds of lawyers marched towards the Governor’s House. The personnel of the law-enforcement agencies had erected barricades on roads leading to the Governor’s House. The protesting lawyers, however, crossed over the barbed wires and staged a sit-in near the Governor’s House.

They protesters were raising slogans against General Pervez Musharraf and the government. They carried placards and banners.