SIALKOT, Dec 6: A convention of lawyers in Daska on Thursday ruled out any possibility of reaching a settlement with the ‘dictators’ and vowed to continue the protest till the bitter end.

At a meeting of minds, the lawyers announced boycott of the upcoming general elections and said they had directed their efforts to prevent people from casting their votes.

The Daska Bar Association organised this convention at Sabzazar where a number of lawyers from Sialkot, Sambrial and Pasrur and known names from Lahore turned up for the cause of expressing solidarity with former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Hamid Khan, a former president of Supreme Court Bar Association who is currently Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf’s vice chairman, said lawyers all over the country were battling for the restoration of the judiciary and the very survival and integrity of Pakistan. The movement, amply supported by the masses, had entered the “deciding moment” as the days of the Musharraf and his aides were numbered, he said.

He said the elections, if held, would be an exercise in futility as they would be rigged.

Former SCBA president Ahmad Awais stressed the need to redefine the limits of the army which, he said, should perform the duty of safeguarding the borders. “Every lawyer has become a Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan,” he said in a lighter vein.

Hamid Khan, later, distributed the “Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry Medals” among 14 Daska-based lawyers for being most active in the anti-Musharraf campaign.