PESHAWAR: Lawyers vow not to approach courts : Release of colleagues
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Nov 15: Lawyers on Thursday continued boycott of courts with the resolve that they would not move any court for the release of their detained companions.
They said that any election without restoration of the deposed judges would be a farce.
A joint general body meeting of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association and the Peshawar District Bar Association was held in the high court which was presided over by senior advocate Abdul Qadir Khattak.
The meeting was followed by a protest demonstration in which lawyers burned copies of the PCO and raised anti-Musharraf and pro-Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry slogans.
The lawyers wore black armbands and displayed black banners, posters and placards in different parts of the high court.
The boycott of the superior courts entered 11th day since the imposition of emergency in the country on Nov 3.
As per decision of the NWFP Bar Council they also observed a strike in the lower courts.
A hunger strike camp was set up in the high court which was attended by 14 lawyers including seven females.
A large number of people, including students and civil society groups, visited the camp and expressed solidarity with protesting lawyers.
An advocate of the high court, Mohammad Ali, was arrested by police in the Peshawar University when he was pasting some posters carrying the message to rise against military rule and to come forward in support of the judiciary.
It is learnt that he was interrogated by police as well as officials of a secret agency.
They inquired from him about the origin of the said posters.
The lawyer was released later on with the directives not to repeat the said act.
An official informed that he was also asked to give an undertaking but he declined to do so.
Earlier, the lawyers meeting in the high court condemned the arrest of Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and the treatment meted out to him by activists of the Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba in the Punjab University.
The speakers said that the rule of General Musharraf was worst then that of all the previous dictators.
