January 30, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 20, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 29: The Sindh High Court Bar Association president on Tuesday urged political parities, civil society and NGOs to participate in the rallies and demonstrations on the occasion of ‘Iftikhar Day’ on Thursday.

Rasheed A. Rizvi urged political and religious parties to take part in the lawyers’ ongoing struggle for the reinstatement of the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 position, supremacy of the constitution, restoration of democracy and release of the lawyers, including Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Justice (Retd) Tariq Mahmood , to make the movement more effective.

He was speaking at a joint press conference of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, the Karachi Bar Association and the Malir Bar Association, held in the committee room of the KBA office.

He stated that the Pakistan Bar Council had endorsed the Sindh High Court Bar Association decision of celebrating ‘Iftikhar Day’, and it would be celebrated in all the bar councils of the country and the deposed and retired judges would address the rallies.

Mr Rizvi further stated that the March 9 struggle took a new turn on Nov 3 and would continue till the reinstatement of the deposed judges. He slammed the government for the continuing detention of the top leadership of the Pakistan Bar Council and lawyers across the country. “It was the first time in the history of any country that the judiciary was suspended and lawyers were detained while four leaders of the PBC had been under house arrest for almost three months, so we have decided to celebrate ‘Iftikhar Day’ to protest against such acts,” he added.

Karachi Bar Association president Mahmoodul Hassan said that a complete boycott of court proceedings would be observed on Thursday in accordance with the directions of the Pakistan Bar Council to protest against the ousting of judges, detention of lawyers, including the PBC leadership, amendments made in the Constitution and the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 1973 and detention of deposed judges, including Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

He said the independent judiciary and media would be restored soon.

Karachi Bar Association secretary-general Naeem Qureshi said the purpose of celebrating ‘Iftikhar Day’ was to unite the legal fraternity and to make the ongoing struggle more effective.

He demanded the immediate reinstatement of the judges, withdrawal of detention orders of lawyers and judges and to form an independent election commission to ensure fair elections.

He urged civil society, students and labour unions, political parties, NGOs and people belonging to different walks of life to join in the processions to make the movements successful.

Responding to a question about the formation of the lawyers’ action committee that called for an end to the boycott, Mr Qureshi said those lawyers were only a few and most of them, too, were provisional and local governments’ employees. He warned that the membership of the action committee members would be cancelled if they tried to disrupt the ongoing movement.

It was also announced that lawyers at the City Courts would march towards the Sindh High Court Bar Association in a procession, where a joint general body meeting would be held with SHCBA president Rasheed A. Rizvi in the chair. After the general body meeting the lawyers would take out a procession and march towards the Karachi Press Club, where they would hold protest demonstrations.

Malir Bar Association President Zahoor Hussain Mehar said the members of the Malir bar would reach the SHBCA office to take part in the ‘Iftikhar Day’ events.