PESHAWAR, May 11: Lawyers boycotted court proceedings here on Friday in protest against the armed attack on the residence of Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik in Karachi.

Throughout the day, members of the Peshawar High Court and the district bar associations sported black bands. The NWFP Bar Council had decided at its meeting on Thursday that court proceedings would be boycotted completely throughout the province to express solidarity with Mr Malik, who is a counsel for Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Talking to journalists, PHCBA president Abdul Lateef Afridi held the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Sindh government responsible for the attack and claimed that it was aimed at putting pressure on Mr Malik to withdraw from the case. He added that such tactics could not scare lawyers as they were “determined to continue their struggle until final victory”.

On the one hand, said Mr Afridi, the MQM portrayed itself as a party of the middle class people which was struggling for democracy but, on the other, its leaders were strengthening the unconstitutional rule of an army general.

“By announcing a rally for May 12, the day when the chief justice would address lawyers in Karachi, the MQM has in fact tried to appease Gen Musharraf,” Mr Afridi remarked.

He said the government had panicked due to the movement of lawyers and to put pressure on them, the MQM and Sindh government had sealed the office of Mr Malik. His residence was attacked for the same reason.