LAHORE, Sept 26: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) have announced they will observe a strike and stage rallies on Thursday (today) against Gen Pervez Musharraf’s planned re-election as president.

The SCBA also announced protest meetings today and asked the Supreme Court to block conspiracies aimed at usurping people’s fundamental rights. It said lawyers, civil society members and political workers would converge in Islamabad to record their protest on Sept 29, when the Election Commission of Pakistan will scrutinise Gen Musharraf’s nomination papers.

The SCBA said the government had “failed miserably” to divide lawyers, adding it would witness an “unprecedented resistance” by lawyers throughout Gen Musharraf’s re-election process.

LHCBA President Ahsan Bhoon said lawyers would go on strike across Pakistan in accordance with the All Pakistan Lawyers Conference. He said lawyers would observe black day on Sept 29 against Gen Musharraf’s re-election bid. He said lawyers would protest if Gen Musharraf was re-elected president on Oct 6 and celebrate if not.

Earlier, he rapped arrests of political workers and leaders and called for their immediate release. He said a dictator would not know the importance of freedom, fundamental rights and the sanctity of privacy for he was “brazenly violating all these”. He said protests were a right of every citizen and blocking it was an offence, which was punishable under the law.