January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

PESHAWAR, Jan 15: Denouncing the decision of the Pakistan Bar Association to limit the lawyers’ boycott, the entire bar associations of the province unanimously decided here on Tuesday to continue boycott of the superior courts for an indefinite period.

A crucial meeting held under the aegis of NWFP Bar Council requested the bar associations and bar councils of the three other provinces to follow suit and continue the boycott of the superior courts till the restoration of pre-Nov 3 judiciary.

“The government agencies compelled the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to call off the continuous boycott of the superior courts and reduce it to once a week,” said Qazi Naeem, the vice chairman of NWFP Bar Council in a press briefing. He said that the PBC should revoke its decision and also tender apology to the lawyers for betraying their trust.

Announcing the decisions taken in the meeting, Supreme Court Bar Association Vice President and NWFP Bar Council Executive Committee Chairman Saeed Akhter said that apart from the continuous boycott of the superior courts complete boycott of other courts would be observed on every Saturday and two-hour boycott would be observed on other working days.

“We can’t betray our independent judges and our leaders including Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmood. We did not achieve even a single objective of our movement then how can we start appearing before the PCO Judges,” Mr Akhter Said.

The participants of the meeting demanded forthwith release of all the detrained judges, lawyers and political workers.

The meeting called upon President Pervez Musharraf to step down, form a national government and establish an independent election commission for conducting free and fair polls.

Peshawar High Court Bar Association President Abdul Lateef Afridi said that it was brought to their notice that some judges of the high court had dismissed cases of lawyers due to non prosecution. He warned that if the judges continued to adopt the same practice the lawyers would be forced to lock down the courts.

The meeting was attended by 26 of the 33 members of the bar council, presidents of the PHCBA and its circuit benches in Abbotabad and Dera Ismail Khan, three members of the Supreme Court Bar Association and about 30 presidents and 25 general secretaries of various district and tehsil bar associations from all over the province.

It is learnt that during the meeting almost all the speakers condemned the PBC for relaxing the boycott of the superior courts. Not a single participant endorsed the decision of the PBC and some of the speakers even accused some PBC members of striking a secret deal with the government.

Through a resolution, the meeting condemned placing curbs on the media and demanded that the amendments made in the Pemra Ordinance should be withdrawn. The meeting also demanded withdrawal of amendments made in the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act.

The participants of the meeting condemned the role of Dr Khalid Ranjha in the meeting of PBC held on Jan 13, saying that he was instrumental in ending the strike of lawyers.

The meeting constituted an action committee for implementation of the decisions and taking fresh decisions in emergency situation. Members of the committee include Qazi Naeem, Saeed Akhter, Abdul Lateef Afridi, presidents of Abbotabad and D.I. Khan circuit benches Tehmas Khan and Daud Khan respectively, president of Peshawar District Bar Association, Maulana Shamsul Haq, SCBA executive committee member Mussarat Hillali, and members of the bar council Qaiser Rasheed, Kifayat Ali, Parveen Akhter, Mian Faheem, Ahmad Farooq and Arshid Awan.