QUETTA, June 15: Lawyers boycotted the proceedings of courts in the city and other district headquarters of the province on Thursday on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council to express solidarity with the chief justice against the filing of presidential reference in the Supreme Judicial Council.

They took out a procession that passed through Shara-i-Iqbal and Manan Chowk. They held black flags and chanted slogans in favour of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and against the government.

Finally, they stopped in front of the press club where Baz Mohammad Kakar, president of the Balochistan Bar Association, and Hadi Shakeel Ahmed, president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, addressed the gathering.

They vowed to continue the struggle against the unlawful acts of the government and maintained that the reference filed by the president against the chief justice was on mala fide intentions aimed at infringing the authority of the apex court. They said that the president after failing to pursue the chief justice to tender his resignation filed a reference to the Supreme Judicial Council, and added that charges framed in the reference were not based on truth.

Representatives of the Balochistan Bar Association and Balochistan High Court Bar Association said that the nationwide movement of lawyers’ that enjoyed the backing of the people would succeed in the struggle to restore the chief justice in order to maintain the independence of the judiciary.