KARACHI, Sept 29: Leaders of the Sindh Bar Council and the Karachi Bar Association on Saturday condemned the “police action” against peaceful lawyers and threatened to start an agitation campaign if the rulers did not stop what they described as “anti-democratic” actions.

Addressing a hurriedly-called press conference at the committee room of the City Courts, KBA President and SBC member Iftikhar Javaid Qazi, SBC member Salahuddin Khan Gandapur and KBA General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi said the police had baton-charged peaceful lawyers in order to provoke them.

They said the lawyers, earlier in the morning, had decided to form a human chain on Raja Riaz Shaheed Road, formerly known as Lewis Road, to lodge their protest against the nomination of General Pervez Musharraf for the presidential election.

They claimed the police did not let them form the chain and started baton-charging them before they could reach the road’s end near Bilal mosque in the court premises.

The speakers said the next line of action would be decided in a general body meeting scheduled for Monday, Oct 1, adding that Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Sabihuddin Ahmed and the district and sessions judge, South, were also informed about the police high-handedness.

They showed newsmen the empty shells of tear gas canisters which, they said, were fired at the women’s common room, Bilal mosque, committee room, bar room and courtrooms. They also condemned the beating up of lawyers, especially the aged ones, and termed the police’s action “state terrorism.”

They said it was observed for the first time that police personnel, especially in plainclothes, were pelting stones on the lawyers’ procession and inside the bar room. Speakers alleged that the police action against the lawyers was pre-planned and warned that they would not remain silent over it.

The lawyers said their struggle was aimed at establishing the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and the strengthening of democracy.

They said the lawyers’ silence should not be taken as their weakness as they could block all the city’s roads in protest and “teach a lesson” to the rulers.

It was said that the lawyers would not accept Pervez Musharraf with or without uniform and asked him to tender his resignation in the best interests of the nation.

They asked all KBA members to ensure their attendance at the next general body meeting.