May 18, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 01, 1428

HYDERABAD, May 17: On the call of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), lawyers across Sindh took out processions and staged demonstrations on Thursday to protest against the filing of the presidential reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Wearing black armbands, advocates in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Khairpur, Dadu, Mehar, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Johi, Sehwan and Kotri boycotted court proceedings, condemned the May 12 violence in Karachi and offered fateha for the victims.

In Hyderabad, token hunger strikes were staged while the Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) organised a rally led by High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Hyderabad president Abdul Sattar Kazi, HDBA president Abdul Aziz Sheikh and general secretary Noorul Haque Qureshi.

The rally culminated at the hunger strikers’ camp outside the Civil Courts building, and an earlier plan to stage a demonstration on the route from the courts to the district nazim’s office was postponed till Monday. Accusing President Musharraf of following the US agenda in order to perpetuate his rule, bar office- bearers vowed to continue their struggle.

The hunger strikers’ camp was visited by MMA MNA Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammed Zubair and MMA district president Abdul Waheed Qureshi.

MIRPURKHAS: Led by District Bar Association (DBA) president Salahuddin Panhwar, lawyers carrying banners and placards took out a protest rally from the bar room to Market Chowk.

Speaking on the occasion, Salahuddin Panhwar, Asghar Ali Channa, Syed Qaseem Ahmed and Gulab Khan Kaimkhani condemned the filing of the reference against the CJP and accused the government of harassing the legal fraternity.

NAWABSHAH: A general body meeting of the DBA, presided over by DBA president Ali Mohammed Dahiri, praised the Hyderabad Bar’s action in filing a constitutional petition against the police personnel involved in sabotaging the Karachi rally that was meant to welcome the Chief Justice.

Participants condemned the Nawabshah police force’s action in stopping the city’s DBA members’ caravan as it attempted to proceed towards Karachi. Recalling that this caravan was intercepted at two different places on May 12, the protesters decided to lodge an FIR against the Nawabshah police.

KHAIRPUR: After gathering at the Sessions’ Court, members of the legal community marched along various roads raising slogans against the Sindh Chief Minister and MQM ministers. The leaders of the rally maintained that the country’s leadership had been exposed.

DADU: Lawyers observed a token hunger strike outside the judicial complex, while a large number of Sindh National Front activists staged a demonstration against the recent violence in Karachi.