April 19, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 01, 1428

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BAHAWALPUR, April 18: Several members of the High Court Bar Association, Bahawalpur, have demanded of Lahore High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Ahmad Chaudhry, a member of the Supreme Judicial Council which is hearing the presidential reference against CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, to resign from the SJC.

This demand was made by Peer Akhtar Chishti at the general body meeting of the association held at the bar room to express solidarity with the suspended CJP on the occasion of the hearing of reference at Islamabad on Wednesday. Association president Malik Saeed Ijaz was in the chair.

Mr Ijaz told this correspondent by telephone after the meeting that Mr Chishti, while condemning the presidential reference against the CJP, said the LHC CJ should immediately resign from the SJC owing to, what he described, personal grudge with the suspended CJP.

He said Akhtar Chishti’s demand was supported by all the members, including retired session judge Mian Faizul Hasan, Qazi Bilal, Abdul Rashid Raashid and Khair Muhammad Bhadera.

Mr Ijaz said the bar condemned the presidential reference against the CJP and resolved to continue the struggle till his reinstatement.

Meanwhile, the members of district and high court bars boycotted courts due to which litigants faced hardships. They took out a protest rally and staged a sit-in to condemn the presidential reference against the CJP. The rally, led by DBA president Yahya Khan, began from the district bar room.

It paraded up to Farid Gate where DBA leaders made speeches against the presidential reference. On their return, they staged a sit-in at GPO Chowk as a result of which traffic was disrupted.

MMA RALLY: Meanwhile, another rally against the suspension of CJP was brought out from the Jamaat-i-Islami office under the auspices of MMA.

MMA deputy parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Dr Syed Wasim Akhtar led the rally. The participants, carrying placards against the government, marched up to Farid Gate.

EXECUTED: Convicts Abdul Qadeer and Tahir were executed in the New Central Jail here on Wednesday.

They were sentenced to death for sodomising a 13-year-old boy and later killing him near Hasilpur about three years ago. The apex court upheld their conviction and the president dismissed their mercy petition.