November 07, 2007	Wednesday	Shawwal 25, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: Like others parts of the country, the lawyers of the capital also continued their boycott of the proceedings of the district and session courts for the second day on Tuesday to protest against imposition of emergency rule and sacking of supreme court and high courts judges by Gen Pervez Musharraf and subsequent crackdown on the protesting lawyers across the country.

Because of the boycott, no case could be taken up for hearing at the lower courts. The judges only appeared in their chambers.

Heavy contingent of Islamabad police, Punjab Constabulary and Elite Force remain deployed in and around the lower courts and around offices of senior police and administration officials, which are also situated in the courts premises. Barricades were erected on the entry points to the courts to thwart any eventuality.

A large number of lawyers from the twin cities staged an hour-long peaceful protest demonstration on the courts premises against imposition of the emergency and targeting of judiciary by the present regime. They chanted slogans agaisnt Gen Musharraf’s undemocratic move. The protesting lawyers were addressed by the sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on telephone from his besieged residence. But his address lasted for only a minute as his cell phone was jammed.

During his short speech, the chief justice urged the nation to wage a struggle for restoration of the constitution, which he said, had been ripped to shreds. The time for sacrifice has come, he said, hoping the day would come when there would be supremacy of the constitution and no dictatorship.

On the other hand, the Islamabad bar association has said that about ten lawyers were arrested by the police on Tuesday from different parts of the city while raids were continuing on the houses of promient lawyers since the emergecy was clamped. The office-barriers of the bar association and prominent lawyers have gone into hiding to escape arrests.

Meanwhile, the supreme court building and judicial colony remained on Tuesday under the siege of the large number of law enforcement agencies personnel to restrict the movement of sacked judges. Roads leading to the supreme court and the judical colony were blocked with iron barricades and barbed wires. No one was allowed to enter the besieged area of the Constitution Avenue from Radio Pakistan to Pak Secretaraiat.