February 01, 2008	Friday	Muharram 22, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 31: The city’s legal fraternity gathered on Thursday to observe ‘Iftikhar Day’ in condemnation of the continued detention of the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, other deposed judges and the top leadership of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), and took out a rally from the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SCHBA) premises to the Karachi Press Club after a joint general body meeting.

In response to a call given by the SCHBA and endorsed by the PBC, lawyers, private citizens and representatives of non-governmental organisations, labour unions and human rights organisations staged a demonstration outside the press club and protested against the ousting of superior court judiciary and the detention of the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, lawyer Ali Ahmed Kurd and Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood.

Surrounded by the heavy police contingents that had been deployed around the high court and the press club, participants of the rally waved placards, banners and flags whilst raising anti-Musharraf and anti-government slogans.

Addressing the gathering at the press club, the former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Munir A. Malik, announced that the legal community would ‘besiege’ the Parliament House in Islamabad on Feb 19 and would continue its struggle until the deposed judges were reinstated. He urged the country’s political parties to join hands with lawyers in the related causes of the deposed and detained judges, the restoration of democracy, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution.

SCHBA president Rasheed A. Rizvi, KBA president Mahmoodul Hasan and KBA general secretary Naeem Qureshi also addressed the crowd and vowed to continue their struggle.

March 9 act illegal

Earlier, at the joint general body meeting of the SHCBA and the Karachi and Malir bar associations held at the high court bar room, the former acting chief justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, pointed out that the public had lost its faith in the current judiciary. He said that citizens were reluctant to seek justice from the sitting judges since they had taken oaths under the Provisional Constitution Order and were in no position to dispense justice.

Saying that the deposed judges were removed under unconstitutional and immoral acts that had no legal cover, Justice Bhagwandas said that the deposed judges would have to be reinstated soon and urged the legal fraternity to continue its struggle for the rights of Pakistan’s citizens, the independence of the judiciary, the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, and the supremacy of the Constitution.

The senior judge said that the bar and the bench could not function without each other and urged lawyers, civil society activists and private citizens to take forward their struggle for the restoration of the bench.

Terming President Musharraf’s March 9 action against the chief justice an “illegal and unconstitutional” step, Justice Bhagwandas said that “traditionally in our society, men and women are remembered after their death. But lawyers have made history by observing Ifthikhar Day, celebrating the life of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for his unforgettable services to the field.”

Through a resolution moved on the occasion, SHCBA president Mr Rizvi demanded the restoration of the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 status and the immediate withdrawal of detention orders against lawyers that included Mr Ahsan, Mr Kurd and Justice (retd) Mahmood.

The resolution also condemned the deployment of police and rangers’ squads at the SCHBA and KBA premises and demanded the release of advocate Suhail Anjum, who reportedly ‘disappeared’ on Thursday morning.

KBA president Mr Hasan also emphasised that the legal fraternity was united and would continue its movement until its objectives were achieved. He slammed the government and its law enforcements agencies for surrounding the high court and city courts buildings and questioned where these law enforcers had been when the city was on fire on Dec 27 and Dec 28 during the riots that broke out after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Deposed judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Ghulam Rabbani, and the president of the Malir Bar Association, Zahoor Hussain Mehar, also addressed the meeting.

Court boycott observed

Travelling in small groups, lawyers belonging to the Karachi and the Malir bar associations also reached the premises of the Sindh High Court Bar to mark Iftikhar Day. Their decision to travel in small groups rather than in the form of a procession meant that the heavy contingents of law enforcement agencies deployed in front of the City Courts remained peaceful.

Meanwhile, legal proceedings remained suspended at the City Courts and the Malir District Courts on Thursday since lawyers continued their weekly boycott in response to the strike call given by the Pakistan Bar Council. The on-going protests and boycotts result from the regime’s ousting and detention of the chief justice of Pakistan and several senior judges, the detention of high-ranking members of the PBC, and amendments to the Constitution and the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act 1973.

An estimated 139 under-trial prisoners were brought to the City Courts from different prisons across the city. Although the judges remained in their chambers, the prisoners’ cases could not be heard because of the lawyers’ boycott and they were taken back to their respective places of detention.

The stationary shops and cabins in the City Courts’ premises remained closed while stamp vendors also pulled their shutters down in view of the lack of business.