ISLAMABAD: A country-wide strike was being observed by the legal fraternity Wednesday on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to register their protest over alleged violence against lawyers at the hands of law-enforcement personnel, DawnNews reported.

Earlier on Nov 26, a section of 200 young lawyers, who came from the Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad and DG Khan divisions of Punjab, had attacked the Supreme Court in the federal capital, to vent their anger at non-establishment of the benches of the Lahore High Court at their Divisional Headquarters.

Police had intervened and pushed them out of the building. When the protesters continued to be rowdy, pelting stones at the building, the police baton charged and fired tear gas shells.

A number of lawyers and 25 policemen were injured in the scuffle.

In reaction to what was termed “inhuman and brutal police action” against the lawyers demonstrating peacefully to press their demand, Vice Chairman of PBC Qalbe Hassan had announced a countrywide strike and boycott of the courts by the lawyers.

Adhering to the call of the PBC, lawyers in the southern city of Karachi remained absent from the Sindh High Court, City Courts and the Malir Court. Due to the strike, litigants faced many difficulties as scores of cases stood pending throughout the province.

Meanwhile, the lawyers’ community in Lahore also boycotted court proceedings. A woman outside a sessions’ court in Lahore alleged that “she had been subjected to physical assault by some members of the lawyers' community”.

The lawyers’ community in Rawalpindi and Islamabad were also observing the boycott and remained absent from courts. Moreover, a heavy contingent of police personnel has also been deployed outside the Rawalpindi Bar to deal with any untoward incident.

Lawyers in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, too, did not appear before the courts on the strike call by the PBC. The lawyers' boycott left litigants high and dry.

Police registers case against lawyers in SC attack

The capital police registered a case against lawyers involved in the attack on Supreme Court a day earlier.

The capital’s secretariat police registered a case against the lawyers who were involved in riots against the apex court.

Following registration of the case, a First Information Report (FIR) was also filed against the accused lawyers.

The case included over 15 clauses.

Meanwhile, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Kamran Murtaza and Asma Jahangir visited the injured lawyers at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) hospital and the Polyclinic.

Murtaza claimed that the hospital administration was not providing proper medical treatment to the injured lawyers whereas Jahangir said the lawyers hailing from distant places had been discharged.