February 15, 2008	Friday	Safar 07, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 14: Lawyers boycotted court proceedings and marched on The Mall to press the government to restore some 60 superior court judges deposed in the wake of the imposition of emergency rule in the country on Nov 3.

Lawyers got engaged in a brawl when some of them raised slogans against Ahsan Bhoon and other Lahore High Court judges.

Rights activists, political workers, representatives of NGOs, doctors and members of civil society marched with the lawyers out of their conviction to have an independent judiciary. Lord Eric Avebury, a member of the House of Lords, accompanied the protesters to express solidarity with the lawyers and the deposed judges. Deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's father-in-law Rana Ghulam Rasool, labour party activists and representatives of the Joint Action Committee also participated.

The lawyers had taken out two separate rallies -- one from the Aiwan-i-Adl by the Lahore Bar Association and the second from the Lahore High Court by the Lahore High Court Bar Association -- that merged into one in front of the GPO.