LAHORE, May 19: The general body meeting of the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) held on Saturday condemned the May 12 Karachi killings, what they said, at the hands of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and demanded that the party be banned and declared a terrorist outfit.

The meeting also warned that any member who would associate himself/herself with the group could lose its membership of the council.

It also decided that all PbBC members would go to Sahiwal to show solidarity with lawyers who were burnt due to police torture during a torch-bearing rally on May 4. The schedule of the visit will be announced later.

The council also adopted a resolution calling for legal and practical resistance to alleged attempts of changing seniority list of Supreme Court judges.

It also eulogized the services of chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) counsel in the presidential reference case and Bhakkar additional district and sessions judge Qazi Waqar Husain for resigning in protest against the presidential action against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The council will print photographs of the CJP and burnt lawyers of Sahiwal on its calendar for the year 2008. —Staff Reporter