May 04, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1428

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QUETTA, May 3: Lawyers boycotted court proceedings in the city and other districts headquarters on Thursday to express solidarity with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Four lawyers, including Balochistan Bar Council vice-chairman Hashim Khan, observed a token hunger strike in the bar room.

Balochistan High Court Bar Association president Hadi Shakeel Ahmed on the occasion told reporters that lawyers in Quetta, Pishin, Loralai, Zhob, Khuzdar, Hub, Panjgur, Turbat and other towns did not attend the court proceedings to protest the filing of presidential reference against the chief justice.

He said that a meeting of lawyers held under his chairmanship condemned the security personnel’s behaviour for not allowing the vehicle of the chief justice to enter the Supreme Court premises through the judges’ gate. “This shows that the Musharraf-led government is intentionally insulting the chief justice.”

He said people would not allow the government to impose its “illegal decisions” on the chief justice prior to verdicts of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Judicial Council.

Meanwhile, PML lawyers’ wing leader M. Nawaz Khan Barakzai has criticised opposition parties for pressurising the Supreme Judicial Council by holding rallies and said that Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was not above the law.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, he said that he in 1999 had filed an affidavit through a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court against the alleged misconduct of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry when he was chief justice of the Balochistan High Court, adding that the apex court had accepted his petition and referred it to the BHC for the proceedings.

Mr Nawaz alleged that Justice Chaudhry had always insulted counsel when he was chief justice of the BHC.