KARACHI, July 12: The legal fraternity on Thursday observed a complete boycott of court proceedings in response to the Pakistan Bar Council’s call for protest against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

No proceedings could be held in courts as lawyers did not appear before judges, who remained present in their chambers.

The courts’ compounds wore a deserted look and stamp vendors’ did not turn up. Under-trial prisoners were also not taken to the courts.

Different batches of lawyers at the Sindh High Court, the City Courts and the Malir District Court observed a token hunger strike as part of their ongoing campaign for the reinstatement of the chief justice.

At the City Courts, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) held its general body meeting which was addressed by KBA President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi, General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi, and members Chaudhry Abdul Sattar, Hakim Shaikh, Mohammad Bux Lashari, Jahangir Narejo, Ishfaq Janjua and Umer Baloch.

Although they reiterated their determination to continue the struggle for the independence of the judiciary and reinstatement of the chief justice, their speeches focused largely on the military action at the Lal Masjid complex where troops killed a large number of radical religious activists, teachers and students, after they refused to surrender to the authorities and vacate the mosque and seminaries.

KBA chief Iftikhar Javaid Qazi termed the military action “a wild action”, maintaining that in a civilised world, such an extreme action was tantamount to gross violation of the established basic human rights.

He said the operation would be remembered as “a dark chapter” in the history of Pakistan, adding that those at the helm of the affairs had given a bad name to the nation and Islam by ordering and carrying out the action.

He said those who were supporting the rulers on the issue were doing so for personal gains.

Mr Qazi expressed the resolve to force the rulers to restore the judiciary’s independence, and asked lawyers across the country to maintain unity in their rank and file in order to ensure success of their ongoing movement.

Naeem Qureshi termed the Lal Masjid operation “shameful” and said that the nation would never forgive the rulers for killing innocent people.

Ashfaq Janjua urged lawyers’ association not to give membership to any retired serviceman.

Mohammad Bux Lashari said that the series of events over the past few months showed that the government was making repeated attempts to sabotage the ongoing movement of lawyers by diverting people’s attention from the issue and its mistakes.

The Lawyers demanded a judicial inquiry into the Lal Masjid affairs and the army operation Silence.