June 01, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

SARGODHA, May 31: Lawyers locked courtroom of a civil judge after forcing her and the staff out when she refused to accommodate a lawyer on Thursday. Civil judge Farzana Bashir insisted on hearing a case while the lawyer sought adjournment. The judge and the lawyer exchanged hot words and the latter reported the matter to the DBA’s executive body. Later, a large number of lawyers besieged the court and raised slogans against the judge, forced the staff to leave the room and locked it.

They took round of the courts and voiced their concern against the judge. They observed complete strike later and did not appear in any court.

Ms Bashir also reported the matter to district and sessions judge Pervez Chawla. He called a meeting of the judges who also decided to observe strike against the attitude of lawyers till the closing time after 12:30 noon.

The lawyers held a protest meeting with DBA president Malik Afzal Farooka in the chair and decided to go on strike against the local courts for indefinite period. When the judges came to know about the lawyers’ decision, they also decided to lock the courts for three days.

Meanwhile, some senior lawyers observed that the situation had been created to harm their mission for independence of judiciary. — Correspondent