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KARACHI, Nov 22: The Sindh High Court Bar Association decided on Thursday to boycott court proceedings on Friday to press for the release of lawyers still behind bars.
Another resolution passed by an SHCBA general body meeting condemned the curbs on the media and called for their immediate withdrawal. It reiterated that the Provisional Constitution Order of Nov 3 should be scrapped and all lawyers, media people and human rights and political activists detained for agitating against it immediately set at liberty.
The meeting was addressed by SHCBA President Abrar Hasan and Secretary Muninur Rehman; Pakistan Bar Council members Abul Inam, Rasheed A. Razvi, Yasin Khan Azad and Sardar Latif Khan Khosa; former SHCBA president Akhtar Hussain and Advocate Mushaffay Ahmad.
The speakers declared that lawyers would not waver or falter in their struggle for the restoration of constitutional rule, independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. They had been suffering for the last eight months but were still firm in their resolve to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution. They were aware that the entire nation had pinned their hopes on them and would strive to come up to its expectations.
They pointed out that Bar representatives, including Aitzaz Ahsan, Muneer Malik, Tariq Mahmood and Ali Ahmed Kurd, were languishing in jails only to free the people of authoritarian rule. The struggle, they said, would continue till the legal profession achieved its cherished goals of democracy and rule of law.
Latif Khosa, who is a PPP senator visiting Karachi to attend party meetings, said while military rulers earlier sought indemnity and validation from the judiciary and the legislature, Gen Pervez Musharraf was indemnifying his own actions. Attorney-General Malik Muhammad Qayyum has joined Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada in devising ways and means to extend legal cover to military rule. An elaborate plan, he added, had been drawn up to rig the forthcoming general election. Twenty-five thousand blank ballot papers would be given to each PML (Q) candidate to ensure his victory. The party’s target was to win at least 110 out of the 142 National Assembly seats in Punjab alone, he claimed.
The meeting deplored an incident wherein Advocate Irfana Memon’s car was burnt and called for an inquiry into it.
A complete boycott of the court proceedings would be observed at City Courts and Malir Distract Court on Friday, on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) against the imposition of emergency rule in the country, ousting of the chief justice and other judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, promulgation of the Provisional Constitution Order and police action against the legal fraternity.
This was announced at a general body meeting of Karachi Bar Association (KBA) on Thursday held at the Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall of the City Courts.
KBA president Iftikhar Javed Qazi vowed to continue their straggle for the independence of the judiciary, restoration of democracy and the rule of law.
KBA general secretary Naeem Qureshi criticized the army’s role in politics and said that the army was only responsible for the defence of the country’s territories.
He condemned the killing of a Baloch leader Balach Marri and said that innocent people were being killed in Balochistan, Waziristan and Swat in the military operations.
The KBA paid tribute to the perseverance of those lawyers who were released from the custody of law-enforcement agencies and shouted anti-government slogans.
Mushtaq Jahangiri, Noor Naz Agha and Saeed Qureshi also addressed the meeting.
