KARACHI: Legal proceedings remained suspended here on Friday as lawyers mourned the devastating suicide attack at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan.

The Pakistan Bar Council had announced a countrywide day of mourning while the Sindh Bar Council had given a boycott call across the province.

Members of the legal fraternity stayed away from court proceedings and bar associations held general body meetings to condemn the attack.

The courts wore a deserted look and hundreds of cases fixed for the day at the City Courts and district courts in Malir could not be taken up for hearing because the jail authorities did not send the undertrial prisoners to courts.

The Sindh High Court chief justice also discharged the board (list of cases fixed for Friday) on the request of lawyers and the judges heard urgent matters in their chambers.

Legal work at the special courts, including those of antiterrorism, accountability and anti-corruption, was also affected since lawyers did not turn up.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2017