February 11, 2008	Monday	Safar 03, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 10: Ensuring a complete boycott of the court proceedings on Monday (today), in line with the decision of Saturday’s Islamabad convention, may prove to be a daunting task for city lawyers.

The convention had called for observing a complete boycott of the judges, who took oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), till the holding of the February 18 election. In the past, not only keeping a complete boycott of the proceedings before the PCO judges fell through but also a partial one. Recently, the Lahore High Court Bar Association office-bearers and members had to go from court to court to make sure the lawyers’ followed the boycott call given by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

“Observing a boycott in Lahore and Karachi turned out to be a difficult task for lawyers,” admitted PBC member Hamid Khan while talking to Dawn. Several lawyers say the economic factor rests at the heart of the failure of the PBC’s boycott call, others feel the political affiliations and vested interests of the lawyers too played a crucial role.

“The former president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association was never interested in ensuring the boycott,” Khan said. “And the attitude of the former president of the Karachi Bar Association was lukewarm too.” Keeping in view the ground realities, the PBC had first limited the boycott to a day in a week and an hour daily.

Later, the office-bearers of the provincial bars pressed the PBC hard to revoke its’ decision and revive the full boycott call issued after the imposition of the November 3 emergency. But, the office-bearers of the provincial bars ignored blatantly those who were not even obeying the call for a limited boycott and also the fact that they would need a mechanism to implement the call in letter and spirit.

PBC vice-chairman Mirza Aziz Akbar Baig did heed the boycott call and convened a meeting of the bar for mulling the demand. He had said that his vote would go in favour of a full boycott call in the crucial meeting.