January 15, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 05, 1429

HYDERABAD, Jan 14: Lawyers observed two-hour hunger strike on the premises of the Sindh High Court here on Monday to protest against detention of Justice (retired) Rana Bhagwandas in his Karachi house for the last two days.

The hunger strike was led by Kazi Abdul Sattar, president of the Hyderabad chapter of the High Court Bar Association, and joined by HCBA secretary-general Allah Bachayo Soomro, senior advocate Abdul Majid Bhatti and others.

Talking to PPI, Mr Sattar said that from Tuesday they would continue token hunger strike at the Civil Court building along with courts' one-hour boycott. He said that their struggle would continue till the restoration of chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry, and other deposed judges.

Mr Soomro said there was no justification of detention of Justice Bhagwandas but the government wanted to frighten the lawyers so that they gave up struggle. However, he vowed that they would continue struggle till realisation of their goal which included restoration of independence of judiciary and the media.

Our Mirpurkhas correspondent adds: On the call of the Pakistan Bar council, lawyers completely boycotted court proceedings and observed token hunger strike on the premises of the district and session court

Mirpurkhas District Bar Association president Salahuddin Panhwar told journalists that the lawyers would observe two-hour hunger strike and one-hour court boycott on daily basis and complete boycott of courts on every Thursday.

He said that a delegation of the DBA would visit Naudero on Thursday to pay tribute to the assassinated leader of Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto.