May 26, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 09, 1428

HARIPUR May 25: The legal community would go on a strike and boycott the court proceedings on Saturday in protest against the visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Haripur and as a gesture of solidarity with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

President of the Haripur District Bar Association, Nawaz Swati, announced this at a multi-party meeting here on Thursday evening.

Senator Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, former NWFP chief minister, provincial head of PML-N Pir Sabir Shah and district presidents of PPP, JUI-F, JUI-P, ANP, besides representatives of the NGOs, traders’ associations and journalists’ bodies attended the meeting.

Mr Swati said that local lawyers would be joined by their colleagues from Mansehra and Abbottabad and then they would take out a protest demonstration.

The meeting also decided to accord a rousing welcome to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who was scheduled to visit Abbottabad on June 2.

The party heads of their district chapters assured the lawyers of their support for arrangements that were being made to receive the chief justice.

The participants were told that the chief justice would be received in the Jhari Kas village on the G.T. Road from where he would be taken to Haripur in a procession that would, after passing through the main bazaar, head for Abbottabad where the CJ would address members of high court bar association.

Earlier, while addressing the participants Sardar Mehtab said the next two months were crucial for the country as the “patriotic forces” needed to join hands with the lawyers and political parties for giving the “last blow” to dictatorship. He said that struggle for the restoration of democracy and bringing the Constitution to its original shape was going to bear fruit.

Pir Sabir Shah of the PML-N said the integrity of the country was at stake due to the dictatorial rule of Gen Musharraf. He said that in a quest to prolong his rule Musharraf had turned the country into a battlefield for the US.

Supreme Court Bar Association Vice-President Saeed Akhtar Khan, Dr Hasnain Raza, Tahir Qureshi, Dr Faiza Rasheed, Saboor Qureshi, Javed Qureshi, Javed Tanoli were among those who spoke on the occasion.