September 19, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 18, 1429

MULTAN, Sept 18: Two groups of lawyers clashed over the issues of ‘locking up’ of courts and suspending court proceeding here on Thursday.

The Multan chapter of the High Court Bar Association had given a call to lock up all courtrooms for two days (Thursday and Friday) to mount pressure on the government to reinstate all the deposed judges.

The clash erupted when some lawyers led by Ilyas Khan, Tariq Saeed and Ashiq Baloch of the People’s Lawyers Forum tried to attend court proceeding. They were stopped by office-bearers of the High Court Bar Association led by Mehmood Ashraf Khan. They were beaten up by lawyers who were in favour of the lock-up.

Senior lawyers intervened and separated the two groups.

Court proceedings remained suspended throughout Thursday.

Mehmood Ashraf Khan said that lawyers would continue their boycott of courts on Friday.

Bar members in other cities and town of Punjab also boycotted courts on Thursday.