PESHAWAR, Nov 10: The NWFP Bar Council on Saturday announced that lawyers would continue to boycott courts for an indefinite period.

Amid a strike for the sixth straight day, lawyers held a demonstration and a general body meeting and also observed a hunger strike.

“We have decided that the strike will continue till the next order,” said Kifayatullah Khan, a member of the bar council.

He said the council had authorised a five-member committee, headed by its vice-president Fazal Tawab Khan, to make decisions on behalf of lawyers.

Initially, there was an impression that the lawyers would end their boycott of subordinate courts on Monday, but would continue the boycott of superior courts for an indefinite period.

A message of the Pakistan Bar Council’s executive committee chairman Qazi Mohammad Anwer, who is under house arrest, was read out at the meeting, urging the civil society to rise up and stand with the lawyers against military rule.

“Through our sustained movement we not only want reversal of the proclamation of emergency and restoration of the Constitution, but we also demand restoration of the position of the judiciary as it stood before the proclamation of emergency and suspension of the Constitution,” he said.

He added that there would be no negotiations for a possible deal with the authorities. “Since we do not accept the ‘PCO Supreme Court’ and the ‘PCO high courts’, the crisis will deepen if the Supreme Court headed by Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the Peshawar High Court headed by Justice Tariq Pervez and the Sindh High Court headed by Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed are not restored.”

Mr Anwer said without the reinstatement of the deposed judges there could be no compromise.

The protesting lawyers raised anti-Musharraf slogans. The atmosphere reverberated with slogans of “go Musharraf go” and “long live Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry”.

Banners and placards carrying various messages and slogans had been put up in the high court, the judicial complex and the sessions court buildings.

About a dozen lawyers participated in the hunger strike. Representatives of NGOs and other civil society groups visited the camp and expressed solidarity with the legal community.