KARACHI, April 24: On a strike call from the Pakistan Bar Council, the legal fraternity in Sindh will observe complete strike on Thursday against the decision of the military government to hold presidential referendum.

The Karachi Bar Association and Sindh Bar Council, in a joint press conference held at the SBC committee room, on Wednesday, announced that lawyers will observe strike and take out protest processions from the City Court to the Press Club, on Thursday.

Abdul Haleem Pirzada, Mustafa Lakhani and Aqil Lodhi represented the SBC and Sindh High Court Bar Association, while Javeed Iftikhar Qazi and Mohammad Aqil Lodhi represented KBA in the press conference.

Talking to newsmen, Abdul Haleem Pirzada said that lawyers will boycott all court proceedings and join KBA’s protest procession after the SBC general body meeting.

All offices-bearers jointly demanded of General Pervez Musharraf to withdraw his decision to hold referendum. They also demanded that the military government hold general elections through transparent election commission and hand over power to a democratically-elected government.

They said that the present government is violating the constitution of Pakistan. “It is clearly written in the constitution that neither can a serving civil servant contest elections nor can he be chosen as President,” they stated.

In response to a query, Abdul Haleem Pirzada said: “By observing this strike, we are not trying to influence the hearing of cases in the Supreme Court challenging the referendum. We are just supporting the Constitution of Pakistan which is being violated by the sitting government.”

Mustafa Lakhani said: “We are creating awareness among the masses about not casting their vote in the referendum.”

He said that they would not allow the government to install ballot boxes in any of the Bar offices and would convince families, relatives and other people not to cast votes in the forthcoming referendum.

Javeed Iftikhar Qazi, in another press conference organized at the KBA committee hall, said that they will take out a protest procession from City Court and will march towards the Press Club if they were not stopped by the administration.

He said that lawyers do not want to agitate against the government but violation of the constitution of the land will not be tolerated.

In the same connection, SHCBA and SBC unanimously passed a resolution of National Lawyers Representative Conference which was held at Lahore on April 20, under auspices of the PBC.

The resolution called upon all Bar councils and associations in the country to observe a protest day on Thursday and hold meetings, rallies and take out processions throughout the country to condemn the referendum being held on April 30.—PPI