KARACHI, June 1: Lawyers on Friday condemned the government for what they described as registration of fake cases against some practitioners of the legal profession and said they were fully prepared to face the consequences of the ongoing campaign for the independence of the judiciary.

Lawyers in the Sindh High Court, City Courts and Malir District Courts said the government would not be able to suppress their voice by ‘implicating’ them in the cases.

They stayed away from the court proceedings for one hour from 10.30am to 11.30am and continued the token hunger strike in their respective bars. Six lawyers Abdur Rasheed, Noorul Hassan, Ashfaq Rafiq Janjua, Syed Sher Hussain Shah, Ghulam Mustafa Memon and Shamrez Khan observed a token hunger strike in the City Courts while two lawyers Ulfat Shah and Shah Nawaz Baloch observed hunger strike in Malir Courts to express their solidarity with Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry against the presidential reference filed against him.

The General-Secretary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Munir-ur-Rehman, said that the FIR against lawyers was registered as a reaction of the contempt petition filed by lawyers in the High Court against Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.

Saying that lawyers never feared to face such cases, he said they had always raised their voice against injustices, unconstitutional acts of rulers and faced similar cases in the past as well. He said the lawyers believed in arguments instead of resorting to violence.

The lawyers, he said, would continue to run the movement till the independence of the judiciary. “Nobody can predict tomorrow, but lawyers are determined to achieve the goal they are fighting for,” he added.

The lawyers said they were united and had trust in the judiciary, which issued notices to all whose names were mentioned in the their petitions including Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Muttahida Qaumi Movement Chief Altaf Hussain.

Karachi Bar Association President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi said a legal battle with the rulers would continue till independence of judiciary. He said the rulers should not make it a matter of ego and accept the lawyers’ fair demand in the best interest of the country.

About the registration of sedition case against the lawyers, he said the government officials were misusing its powers and the cases were aimed at suppressing the movement. He said Thursday’s was the 46th procession of lawyers, but they never resorted to violence and always remained peaceful. “The government was using such tactics to provoke the lawyers, but they would never loose temper and continue the movement peacefully even if it prolongs over years,” he vowed.

Addressing a general body meeting at Shuhda-i-Punjab Hall of City Courts, KBA Vice President Qadir Khan, Naheed Afzaal, Tariq Khan Niazi, Mushtaq Awan, Khalil Dogar, Adnan, Naseer Abbasi and Mushtaq Jehangiri said they were taking the cases as a pride for their continuous struggle for the supremacy of judiciary. They said the lawyers would frame the FIRs and accelerate their activities.

“Had the judiciary taken a single decision against any dictator under Article 6 of the Constitution in the past, the situation would have never reached to this extent,” they observed and urged the superior courts to take suo motu action on the anti-judiciary statements of the ministers and leaders of the ruling parties.

It was announced that some important issues would be discussed in the next general body meeting scheduled for Saturday at 10.30am at Shuhda-i-Punjab Hall of City Courts.

Meanwhile, Sindh Bar Council Human Rights Committee Chairman Aaqil Lodhi said three FIRs, two at Karachi and one at Hyderabad, were registered against him during the lawyers’ campaign but that did not stop his struggle for the rights.

He said lawyers and journalists were under fire as the government was unable to face public criticism on its weaknesses. He also flayed the death threats sent to journalists. “If raising voice for independence of judiciary is sedition, we will continue to raise it,” he said.

Mr Lodhi said there was no option left with the rulers except to reinstate the chief justice and say goodbye to the government.