RAWALPINDI, Oct 18: Lawyers on Saturday boycotted the court proceedings and brought out a rally in protest against the statement of federal law secretary in which he said the deposed CJ had been retired.

President of High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Sardar Asmatullah and District Bar Association (DBA) President Sardar Tariq Masood accompanied the deposed CJ to Hyderabad while a good number of lawyers were present at the airport in the morning and chanted slogans for the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry and against the present government.

The DBA on the directive of the Punjab Bar Council observed black day to condemn the statement of the federal law secretary.

The lawyers held a general body meeting of DBA with vice president Farhad Iqbal Khattak in the chair and criticised the Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek for his stand on the issue of retirement.

The lawyers later marched towards main Katchery Chowk and staged a sit-in for about half an hour chanting slogans for the reinstatement of the deposed CJ and against President Asif Ali Zardari for backing out from his promise on restoration of the deposed judges.

The lawyers in the general body meeting said their struggle for the independence of the judiciary would be strengthened after the elections of the Supreme Court Bar Association and other bar associations in the country as only the pro-deposed judges lawyers would be elected to the bodies.

Earlier lawyers gathered at Benazir Bhutto Airport to see off the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry for Karachi on way to Hyderabad where he would address a lawyers’ convention.