QUETTA, May 14: A complete shutterdown was observed in Quetta on Monday on the call of the opposition parties in protest against the violence in Karachi on May 12. Lawyers boycotted court proceedings in the city and district headquarters of the province on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council, Balochistan Bar Association, Balochistan High Court Bar Association (BHCBA) and Balochistan Bar Council.

All markets and trade centres remained closed. However, vehicular traffic plied as usual. Government departments and educational institutions also remained open. The strike remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the city.

An Anjuman-i-Tajiran Balochistan spokesman claimed that the strike was also observed in other towns of the province and said that the business community had responded positively to the call of opposition parties.

Lawyers, carrying black flags, took out a procession from the district courts and passed through different roads of the city and staged a sit-in at Manan chowk.

The protesters chanted slogans against President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain. Hadi Shakeel Ahmed, president of the BHCBA, thanked the business community for supporting the strike.

He blamed the Karachi violence on the Sindh government and its coalition partner the MQM, saying that lawyers could not understand why the MQM leadership had chosen to resist the visit of the chief justice to Karachi.

Mr Shakeel said that even though the PML-Q led Punjab government was against the lawyers’ movement, yet they did not create any trouble for the chief justice during his visit to Lahore.

He claimed that the `irresponsible and immature’ political wisdom of the MQM leadership had destroyed the peaceful atmosphere in Karachi.

Mr Shakeel alleged that the MQM had pursued a fascist behaviour at the behest of a military dictator and said that the MQM could not stop the nationwide lawyers’ movement.