LAHORE, Nov 4: The Lahore Bar Association (LBA) on Tuesday brought the proceedings at lower courts to a halt after locking courtrooms in protest against delay in the restoration of the deposed judges, including Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The judicial work in civil courts at Aiwan-i-Adl, the nearby session courts, the district courts, the Cantt courts and the Model Town courts came to a halt when protesting lawyers put padlocks on the doors of the courtrooms.

Upon hearing the news, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain called the administrative committee’s meeting and directed the Advocate General Khwaja Haris to ask Punjab chief secretary to take action against those involved in the courtroom locking incidents in Lahore, Okara and Toba Tek Singh.

The chief justice also asked Mr Haris to seek explanation from the quarters concerned about their failure to stop lawyers from locking courtrooms when the LHC registrar had already informed them about protesting lawyers’ intentions.

After a while, the AG returned to the meeting and requested the chief justice to put off the meeting, stating the chief minister had assured him of strict action against those responsible for such incidents.

The chief justice adjourned the meeting till Nov 5.

LBA senior vice-president Asim Cheema, who tabled the resolution to lock the courtrooms, said lawyers had to take the measure as a last resort to press the government for the restoration of the deposed judges. The lawyers locked the courtrooms after unanimously passing the resolution in the LBA’s general house meeting.

Deafening chants of ‘boycott, boycott’ filled the hall, where lawyers raised fists and vowed to get the deposed judges restored. Senior civil judge Zafaryab, who had been hearing a case, left the courtroom when he saw a large number of lawyers approaching there.

After locking it, the lawyers then proceeded to other courts and locked all the 51 courtrooms. After finishing the job at civil courts, they went to the Sessions Courts and locked 31 courtrooms there. Some of the lawyers also stormed the nearby District Courts and forced the 15 judicial officers and staff to leave the courtrooms.

The lawyers at Cantt and Model Town courts also locked 22 courtrooms at both the places.

A litigant, Chaudhry Farooq, at the civil courts said he had come to attend to his case after abandoning other engagements.

He said he had been visiting the courts for the past six months, and now this action had added another adjournment to his case.

A high court advocate, Shahid Mahmood Bhatti, said neither the Pakistan Bar Council nor the National Coordination Council endorsed the action. Several other lawyers also opposed the move, which they said was ‘politically incorrect’.