November 08, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 26, 1428

QUETTA, Nov 7: As lawyers continued their boycott of courts for the third day on Wednesday, police arrested the spokesman of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, Syed Nazir Agha.

Police raided houses of members of the Balochistan Bar Association and Balochistan High Court Bar Association and detained Advocate Qari Rehmatullah of the Jamiat Lawyer Forum.

Before his arrest, Mr Agha announced at a press conference that the association had decided that lawyers would not submit bail applications before judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

During their protest, lawyers raised slogans against Gen Pervez Musharraf and the PCO and vowed to continue their struggle till the lifting of the state of emergency and release of arrested lawyers.

The arrested office-bearers and members of the bar association are reported to have been shifted from the Quetta district jail to prisons in Mach, Sibi, Loralai and Zhob.

Sources said that BHC Bar Association president and former vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council Hadi Shakeel Ahmed had been sent to Mach jail while Senator Advocate Kamran Murtaza and Balochistan National Party (Mengal) secretary-general Advocate Habib Jalib had been shifted to Loralai jail.