KARACHI, May 4: Lawyers at the Sindh High Court, the City Courts and Malir District Court on Friday stayed away from court proceedings for one hour and observed a token hunger strike in their ongoing campaign against the filing of the presidential reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

They also decided that they would field candidates in the next local body elections.

At the SHC, General-Secretary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Munir-ur-Rehman, General-Secretary of the Karachi Bar Association Naeem Qureshi, General-Secretary of the Malir Bar Association Abdul Naeem Memon and General-Secretary of the Income Tax Bar Association Shahab Ahmed Moin, Azhar Siddiqui, Haleem Siddiqui, Tauqeer Hussain and Kamran Sani observed the token hunger strike.

Five KBA members — Mohammad Asghar Khan, Salahuddin Ahmed, Mehar Ilahi, Nasim Hussain Qazilbash and Raza Ali Sandeelo — observed the token hunger strike at the City Courts and four MBA members – Abdul Razaq, Lala Asad Mangi, Bilal and Mohammad Tariq – observed the hunger strike at the Malir District Court.

A general body meeting of the KBA was held in the hunger strike camp where a member of the Sindh Bar Council, Hanif Mohammad, KBA President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi and Acting General-Secretary Amir Niaz Khan, Tariq Niazi, Aslam Bhutta, Furqan, Mubashir, Hassan Ali Shah, Sathi M. Ishaq, Naheed Afzal and Saeed Qureshi spoke to the protesting lawyers.

They said the campaign for the supremacy of the judiciary had entered its 55th day but the government appeared unmoved which was a proof of the government’s unwillingness to recognise supremacy of the judiciary. They also noted that members of the so-called ‘graduate assembly’ also appeared least interested in resolving the problems being faced by common man. They resolved to continue the fight for the rights of people, pointing out that the lawyer fraternity had always been struggling to get innocent people freed from jails and police lockups.

The general body unanimously passed a resolution that called for fielding lawyers from a maximum possible number of constituencies in the next local bodies elections the lawyer fraternity field its own candidates from maximum constituencies. The resolution asked the lawyer fraternity not to support traditional politicians anymore.

The general body observed that such politicians would always seek votes and disappear after getting elected. It was noted that the ongoing campaign had helped the lawyer fraternity distinguish between its friends and foes.

Speakers at the meeting said that military rulers over a period of six decades had played havoc with the country and denied people of their constitutional rights. “It’s time to get rid of the military dictatorship and selfish politicians,” they stressed.

They renewed their pledge to continue the campaign until the withdrawal of the presidential reference against the CJP, and condemned the conspiracies, allegedly hatched by the government, to create a rift among lawyers.

It was announced that lawyers across the city would respond positively to the Pakistan Bar Association and Supreme Court Bar Association’s call for a complete boycott of court proceedings on May 9, when the CJP would appear before the Supreme Judicial Council for hearing of the presidential reference against him in Islamabad.