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KARACHI, July 19: In line with the instructions by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), the legal fraternity on Thursday observed a complete boycott of the court proceedings in the Sindh High Court, the City Courts and the Malir District Courts.
The City Court wore a deserted look as most of the lawyers led by Karachi Bar Association General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi visited the Civil Hospital to donate blood to the wounded of the bomb blast in Hub.
KBA Managing Committee member K.K. Javaid told Dawn that the lawyers donated blood and medicines to the injured people and gave their contact numbers to the medical staff to call them when more blood was required.
Earlier, a condolence meeting of the Karachi Bar Association was held at a hunger strike camp which offered Fateha for the dead and prayed for the injured in the Hub bomb blast.
KBA General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi in his speech alleged that it was a conspiracy hatched by the vested interests to sabotage the lawyers’ movement.
He said lawyers across the country were fully united and determined to continue the struggle even after the reinstatement of the chief justice.
He said he hoped that the lawyers’ struggle would bear fruit and the CJ would be reinstated, but the lawyers would not sit silent on issues of national interests and force the government to hold fair elections in the country. He announced postponement of the routine general body meeting as the lawyers wanted to help the injured.
Following the condolence meeting, KBA President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi told Dawn that the suspension of the chief justice was a pre-planned move of the government to frustrate the people’s movement but it had failed to do so.
He said the controversy that raged during the Supreme Court Bar Association elections showed that the government wanted to deprive Munir A. Malik of the presidentship and get a government-sponsored lawyer elected as president of the association.
Mr Qazi said both filing of the presidential reference against the CJ and the withdrawal of the allegations were based on evil designs and the government never wanted to empower the judiciary.
The lawyers, he said, would continue their struggle for the complete independence of the judiciary which, he said, included the allocation of separate budget for the judiciary, separate police force under the judiciary and an end to the executive’s influence on the judges.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the People’s Lawyers’ Forum was held at the bar room. It was presided over by its president, Shahadat Awan. The meeting condemned the bomb blasts, especially in Islamabad, Hub and Hangu and offered Fateha for the dead and prayed for the early recovery of the wounded.
Prominent among the speakers were Abdul Samad Baloch, Mohammad Khan Buriro, Mohammad Bux Lashari, Mohammad Ali Khaskheli, Abdul Karim Nizamani and Taseer Khan.
They demanded that the Supreme Court of Pakistan take suo motu notice of the bomb blasts through a high court judge and give exemplary punishment to the culprits behind the killing of innocent people.
They said the government policies had failed and the only solution was holding of free, fair and impartial elections, adding that all cases against politicians be withdrawn and they be allowed to take part in the election.
Most of the lawyers in all the courts are optimistic that the Supreme Court will give its verdict in their favour and reinstate the chief justice.
Speakers at a general body meeting at the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) said the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry would be a triumph of the lawyers, but they would not celebrate it and all the funds collected for the purpose would be spent on the welfare of the people in the flood-hit areas of Sindh and Balochistan.
Members of the Sindh Bar Council Mustafa Lakhani, Salahuddin Khan Gandapur, SHCBA President Abrar Hasan, Joint Secretary Ahmed Nafees Ahmad Osmani and other senior lawyers, including Sardar Ayaz, Aamir Niaz Khan, Nihal Hashmi, Shoa-un-Nabi, and Mohammad Mushaffy Ahmed, in their speeches condemned the killing of innocent people in bomb blasts in different parts of the county.
