September 19, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 18, 1429

HYDERABAD, Sept 18: Lawyers boycotted courts and held rallies in several districts of the province on Thursday on a call given by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to protest delay in the reinstatement of deposed chief justice.

Lawyers staged a rally in Hyderabad, which was led by Kazi Abdul Sattar advocate, president of High Court Bar Association (HCBA), Hyderabad chapter, and held a general body meeting in the district bar room.

Kazi Sattar said that lawyers would never compromise on principles and would continue fight for the dignity of judiciary. Only an independent judiciary could resolve people’s problems, he said.

He said that lawyers would leave no stone unturned in the struggle for the restoration of judiciary to pre-Nov 3 position.

HDBA president Choudhry Bashir Gujjar said that lawyers were united and there was no rift among them. They wanted reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry, he stressed.

In Mirpurkhas, lawyers boycotted court proceedings to protest against delay in reinstatement of deposed chief justice. They vowed to continue protest till the acceptance of demands.

DBA President Salahuddin Panhwar said that divided opinion among lawyers and taking oath by some judges had affected the lawyers’ campaign.

A former office-bearer of Mirpurkhas DBA Adnan Khurram advocate said that efforts were being made to demoralise lawyers and conspiracies were being hatched against Ali Ahmed Kurd who was a candidate for president of Pakistan Bar Council office in the forthcoming election.

He said that lawyers opposed to the protest campaign wanted to bring in Yasin Azad to replace Rasheed A Rizvi, president of Sindh High Court Bar and member of Pakistan Bar Council.