KARACHI, May 31: Police registered a sedition case against hundreds of Karachi Bar Association members for setting fire to an effigy of President Pervez Musharraf during a protest demonstration on Thursday.

Sources said an FIR (62/07) was registered by the Risala police under Sections 124-A, 120-B, 160 and 147 of the Pakistan Penal Code. They added that the sections dealt with sedition, a criminal conspiracy, an affray and rioting.

The sources said that Thursday’s was the fourth case against lawyers since the launch of the pro-judiciary campaign. They recalled that two cases had been registered by the Preedy police against lawyers for allegedly raising slogans against Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim during a rally in the provincial assembly.

They added that the third case (FIR 60/07) was registered by the Artillery Maidan police against lawyers for allegedly tearing portraits of the chief minister, staging a march and shouting anti-government slogans.

The FIR registered by the Risala police on Thursday reads: “Some enraged lawyers started to hit the effigy of the president with shoes and then set fire to it. The effigy was inscribed with the following line: ‘Lawyers, please forgive me. I will never again wear a uniform’.” The FIR also says that the police collected the ashes of the burnt effigy as evidence.

KBA General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi told Dawn that lawyers had never taken steps against the solidarity of the country. He added that the cases registered against them frequently were “totally illegal and based on mala fide intentions”.

He said lawyers would stage a protest against the cases at the City Courts on Friday and, if necessary, move the Sindh High Court. He added that they would decide on their course of action at a KBA general body meeting which would be held at 10.30am at the City Courts on Friday.

Mr Qureshi poured scorn on the government for using what he described as “mean tactics” to weaken the lawyers movement for the independence of the judiciary. He vowed that the lawyers would not be intimidated by such cases.

Members of the KBA Managing Committee K.K. Javaid, Abdul Hafeez Baloch, Amir Niaz Khan and Sakhi Ghazali also condemned the government for registering what they described as a false case against the lawyers.

They said the sedition case against the lawyers was a retaliatory step by the government over the filing of a contempt petition in the Sindh High Court against the chief minister.