KARACHI, March 31: Lawyers in the City Courts and Malir District Courts continued their campaign against the suspension of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Sixteen members of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) observed a token hunger strike at the City Courts. They were Mohammad Nisar Khattak, Chaudhry Nasrullah, Mohammad Imran Khan, Sardar Mohammad Sagheer Khan, Mohammad Masud Faiz Qureshi, Mazhar Iqbal, Munawwar Dayo, Diwan Bhoromal, Mohammad Ishaq Sooz, Abdul Wadood Khan Yousufzai, Chaudhry Rashid, Tahir Khan, Malik Afsar, Malik Faisal Hussein, Umer Raz Gul Kakar and Talat A. Aslam.

Lawyers also boycotted the court proceedings for one hour, from 10.30am to 11.30am, and gathered in front of the city courts and raised slogans to deplore the action against the CJP.

KBA President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi and General Secretary Naeem Qureshi addressed the protesters, and said that lawyers’ campaign was not aimed making personal gains but for the independence of judiciary. They resolved to continue their campaign until the withdrawal of presidential reference against the CJP.

“The country’s history is witness to the fact that military dictators have prolonged their rule for a maximum possible period but the legal fraternity has never discontinued its struggle for an independence judiciary and the strengthening of democratic institutions.”

They said that lawyers were fully aware of the conspiracies being hatched against the fraternity and judiciary but all such conspiracy would be foiled through unity.

Four members of the Malir Bar Association (MBA) also observed token hunger strike on Saturday. They were Ghulam Nabi Shaikh, Agha Hafeez-ur-Rehman, Ejaz Abbasi and Shehzad Ali Khan. Lawyers boycotted the Malir District Court’s proceedings for one hour and raised slogans demanding independence of judiciary and withdrawal of the presidential reference against the CJP.

Meanwhile, MBA President Zahoor Hassan Mahar, General Secretary Abdul Naeem Memon and members of the Bar’s managing committee held a press conference on Saturday to warn the rulers that lawyers could go up to any extreme in their campaign to get their legitimate demands accepted.

They said that the one-hour boycott of court proceedings every day during the campaign could be converted into a permanent strike if the demands were not met and the government alone would be responsible for such a situation.

They expressed the view that Gen Musharraf had now taken the issue of the reference as a matter of his ego.

Former Speaker of the Sindh Assembly and President of the Sindh United Party (SUP) Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah also visited the hunger strikers’ camp on Saturday and spoke to protesters at the Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall of the KBA. He said the action against CJP was not in the interests of the country. Rather, he added, this could cause great harm to the country.

Supporting the legal fraternity’s ongoing campaign, he opposed the procedure of appointment of judges, saying that such appointments should be made through the parliament to ensure transparency.