RAWALPINDI, Jan 21: The High Court Bar Association’s (HCBA), Rawalpindi, lawyers will hold a rally at the Constitution Avenue in front of the Supreme Court building and march towards the house of deposed and detained chief justice on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, HCBA President Sardar Asmatullah said the rally would be brought out to express solidarity with the deposed judges and detained lawyers.

Flanked by representatives of the bar, he hoped that the rally would reinvigorate the struggle of lawyers that, he said, had been dampened first by elections and then by the demise of Benazir Bhutto. “We are fighting against injustice and for the independent judiciary that is non-existent presently,” the president of the bar said.

He said civil society activists and workers of political partied would be welcomed in what he called the peaceful gathering of the lawyers who would march towards the house of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Responding to a question, the representative of the lawyers said decision of the Pakistan Bar Council about ending the continuous boycott of the judges who had taken oath under Provincial Constitution Order (PCO) was binding on all the lawyers but, he said, at the same time the Rawalpindi lawyers had expressed their dissatisfaction over the decision.

On Tuesday, we will have a meeting of the Punjab Bar Council to decide about complete boycott of the PCO-judges, he added. The HCBA president said the lawyers would abide by the decision of the Punjab bar and that the lawyers were united in their stance on the rule of law and independence of judiciary.

When asked about the pre-emptive arrest of lawyers and terrorist threats to the gatherings, he said the lawyers would not bow down before any official coercion and added that it was the responsibility of the law enforcers to provide protection to common people.

Meanwhile, the lawyers continued the protest at the district courts and held a rally and gathered at Kachari Chowk, where they chanted anti-government and pro-deposed judges slogans.

Earlier, the lawyers at a general body meeting condemned government’s statements about eviction of the deposed chief justice from hid official residence.