KARACHI, May 5: Lawyers in the Sindh High Court, the City Courts and Malir District Courts continued their boycott on Saturday for an hour from 10.30am to 11.30am against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

They announced that Karachi Bar Association members would stay away from court proceedings on Monday from 12noon to 3pm and complete strike would be observed on May 9 and 12.

On Saturday, KBA members Sardar Mohammad Zulfiqar, Nasir Rizwan Khan, Syed Shahid Iqbal, Shamroz Khan, Mufti Mohammad Bashir, Mohammad Ashraf Khan Mughal, Shafiq Ahmed and Rehana Gul observed a token hunger strike in the City Courts.

Meanwhile, a general body meeting of the KBA was held at the hunger strike camp which was addressed by Sindh Bar Council members Abdullah Chandio, Salahuddin Gandapur, KBA General Secretary Naeem Qureshi and KBA member Sarwar Ahmed Khan.

They condemned the police action against lawyers in Punjab and termed it the worst kind of violence against lawyers. They said lawyers were being beaten up for the only reason that they were running a campaign for the rule of law and judiciary’s independence. Terming the use of law enforcement agencies ‘another blunder’ of the government, they said lawyers were determined to face all kind of sacrifices.

They said lawyers would observe complete strike on May 9 when the chief justice would appear before the Supreme Judicial Council in Islamabad. The chief justice would be given a warm welcome on his arrival here on May 12.

The lawyers said the government was bent upon hollowing the state pillars. They said legislature was made ineffective first and the government had now targeted judiciary and press. They said lawyers would forcefully resist if the government did not stop its anti-judiciary policies.

They asked the fellow lawyers to forge unity and foil the designs of anti-judiciary elements. They said lawyers had always served the people irrespective of their political affiliation, language, colour, area, religion and nationality and would continue their struggle at all costs. They said lawyers were serving a noble cause and giving a respect to the judiciary was a moral duty of all people.It was said that some important points regarding the visit of chief justice to Karachi and lawyers’ preparations to welcome him would be disclosed in a press conference within a couple of days.

The chairman of Sindh Bar Council Human Rights Committee Aaqil Lodhi stated that 4,960 persons, including 60 lawyers, were arrested in Punjab during the visit of chief justice to Lahore. He demanded immediate release of all the arrested political activists and lawyers.

Members of Malir Bar Association also stayed away from the courts for one hour and four lawyers Mohammad Arshad, Saghir Ahmed, Mohammad Qasim and Amanullah Lashari observed a token hunger strike in the bar room.

Meanwhile, the students of Sindh Muslim Law College, led by the Students Action Committee of the college, reached the City Courts in a procession and raised slogans against the college principal. They met the KBA office-bearers and sought help of the association against the principal.