May 13, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1428

LAHORE, May 12: Dozens of lawyers rallied on The Lower Mall against “state patronised violence in Karachi” to prevent Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry from leading a rally.

While condemning the killings, the Punjab Bar Council announced that lawyers all over the province would observe complete strike and boycott court proceedings on Monday.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association, in a press conference, also alleged that police and Pakistan Rangers on behalf of government attempted to kidnap Justice Chaudhry at the Karachi airport.

“What has happened in Karachi is highly deplorable. We condemn it in the strongest words. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has violated all political and democratic norms,” the bar’s office bearers, including secretary Sarfraz Cheema, vice-president Firdaus Butt and finance secretary Rubi Hayat, told the press conference.

Before the press conference, the lawyers of subordinate courts gathered near Civil Secretariat and marched on The Lower Mall. They raised slogans against President Musharraf and the MQM, calling them the brutal faces of dictatorship and usurpers of civil and constitutional rights. They resolved to continue the ongoing campaign against the government over the presidential reference against Justice Chaudhry.

Secretary Sarfraz Cheema said the Sindh administration had given a free hand to the MQM, which caused the law and order situation and the subsequent violence in Karachi. “Everybody has seen TV footage of the gun wielding men roaming on the Karachi roads. There should not be any doubt to identify them,” he added.

The office bearers, quoting their colleagues from Karachi, said the MQM activists also harassed and tortured lawyers from Punjab and other parts of the country, who had gone to attend the CJP’s reception.

“This is just a humiliation of judiciary and democracy by the Musharraf government,” they alleged.

They said the people had got each and every fact through media, and now they would act according to their free will.

The Monday’s strike decision was taken at a meeting of the Punjab Bar presided over by vice-chairman Tariq Javed Warraich.

Mr Warraich said the lawyers were always peaceful in their struggle for restoration of the constitution and independence of judiciary, which was not acceptable to the government.

The meeting also adopted a resolution, supporting media in the ongoing judicial crisis and condemned various kinds of curbs being placed by the government on it.