LAHORE: Lawyers belonging to Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan on Saturday set up a hunger strike camp outside the office of the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) here against the decision of a full Lahore High Court (LHC) rejecting the demand of creation of more permanent benches in their divisions.

The protesting lawyers also started a signatory campaign in support of their demand.

On the first day of the strike, the lawyers also blocked Fane Road for traffic causing problems to commuters. They chanted slogans for creation of new high court benches.

The lawyers said their demand was constitutional and the hunger strike camp would continue till fulfillment of the demand.

A LHC full court had on July 18 resolved that there was no need to create more permanent regional benches of the court.

The full court comprising 47 judges of the high court had taken the decision after extensive deliberation for three days.

The Supreme Court Bar Association and the Lahore High Court Bar Association had hailed the decision.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2016