October 24, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 24, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 23: Lawyers on Thursday boycotted legal proceedings at the City Courts and the Malir Distract Courts in line with the Pakistan Bar Council’s call for a weekly protest against the ousting of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as chief justice of Pakistan along with many other judges of superior courts.

More than 200 undertrial prisoners were brought to the City Courts lockup for the hearing of their case but the hearings could not be held although judges were present in their respective chambers.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) held its general body meeting to condemn the PPP-led coalition’s stance on the issue of the deposed judges’ reinstatement.

The lawyers reaffirmed the resolve to continue their movement until the reinstatement of all judges ousted under the Nov 3, 2007 Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf.

They also expressed their full support to the lawyers’ national coordination committee’s call to observe Nov 3 as “black day”.

KBA leaders slammed the unprecedented hike in the prices of petroleum products and items of daily use, besides exorbitant increase in electricity and gas tariff. They expressed their support to the strike call for Friday given by the Jamaat-i-Islami.

They also held the rulers responsible for the financial crisis looming large on the country.

After the meeting, the lawyers took out a rally from the KBA office and staged a sit-in on M. A. Jinnah Road, disrupting movement of vehicular traffic for some time.