KARACHI: Legal proceedings at the subordinate judiciary remained suspended on Thursday as lawyers observed a boycott against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek sit-ins in Islamabad and vowed to resist any possible extra-constitutional move against the democratic system.

The Karachi bar and the Malir bar associations observed a strike on a countrywide call given by the Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association against the PTI and the PAT for what they described as “imperilling parliamentary democratic system”.

The litigants suffered while courts wore a deserted look as hundreds of cases fixed for the day at the city courts and district courts in Malir could not be taken up for hearing and undertrial prisoners were not brought to the courts.

The legal work at the special courts of the city, including anti-terrorism courts, control of narcotic substances courts, accountability courts, anti-corruption courts and banking courts were also badly affected as lawyers did not turn up.

However, the police produced newly-arrested suspects in courts for remand.

A resolution adopted in a general body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association said that the bar had a long history of struggle and sacrifice for the establishment of democracy and supremacy of the constitution and it feared that any clash between political forces may lead to the rollback of the democratic dispensation.

The bar called upon all political parties to resolve their differences through peaceful negotiations and avoid extreme demands and actions that might lead to any kind of intervention from “undemocratic forces”, it added.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014