February 08, 2008	Friday	Muharram 29, 1429

PESHAWAR, Feb 7: Police on Thursday sealed bar rooms and cafeteria on the premises of the Peshawar High Court and registered a sedition case against 15 lawyers, two of them women.

The NWFP Bar Council condemned the move and urged its members to boycott all courts across the province.

An FIR was registered at the East Cantonment police station in which the lawyers were charged under Section 121 (waging war against Pakistan), Section 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against state), Section 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), Section 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of the offence), Section 144 (joining unlawful assembly), and Section 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharging his duty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Lawyers were to hold a meeting on Friday to decide whether to continue the boycott of superior courts or to follow the decision of the Pakistan Bar Council.

Abdul Lateef Afridi, president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, said that peaceful lawyers had been charged with sedition although they had done nothing wrong.

A heavy contingent of police is deployed at the high court, apparently to stop the entry of the pro-boycott lawyers and prevent them from holding any meeting.

“The FIR … has been sealed. We will arrest lawyers nominated in the FIR after receiving orders from our officers,” said an official of the East Cantt police station.

Although the high court’s registrar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan denied any involvement of the high court, a high-ranking police official said that they had received orders from the court.

Lawyers nominated in the FIR include Ms Mussarat Hilali, member of the Supreme Court Bar Association’s executive council; Qaiser Rasheed, member of the NWFP Bar Council; Abdul Sattar Khan, a leader of PML-N; Sohail Akhter, brother of deposed Chief Justice Tariq Pervez; Babar Yusufzai, son of deposed judge Justice Shahjehan Khan Yusufzai; Behlol Khattak, former secretary general of the PHC Bar Association; Barrister Mudassir, PPP’s leader Gulab Shah, Ameenur Rehman, a leader of PML-Q, Ayaz Khan, Ms Ayesha Malik, Azhar Yousaf, Ishfaq Yousafzai, Yaseer Khattak and Shah Faisal.

Witnesses said that a group of lawyers had gathered outside a courtroom to stop their colleagues from appearing before a bench.

They said that two lawyers, Naveed Maqsood and Sakina Fida, entered the courtroom through judges’ chambers. They said that a former president of the Peshawar District Bar Association, Fida Gul, entered the court and tried to stop some lawyers from appearing in court, but they did not agree to do so. The enraged lawyers waited for them outside.

A big contingent of police also reached the place and saved the two lawyers from being manhandled.

A day earlier, a 12-member lawyers’ delegation had called on Chief Justice Mohammad Raza Khan and called for providing proper security, enabling them to attend court proceedings.

Subsequently, protesting lawyers held an emergency meeting after which they announced that they would forcibly stop lawyers trying to violate the decision to boycott courts.

The PHCBA suspended the membership of Naveed Maqsood and Sakina Fida.