HYDERABAD, Nov 17: Lawyers boycotted courts on Monday on a call for protest given by the Supreme Court Bar Association against cancellation of professional license of the president of High Court Bar Association Peshawar, Lateef Afridi.

They wore black armbands and held a general body meeting, which was addressed by Abdul Sattar Kazi, president of High Court Bar Association (HCBA).

Mr Kazi condemned cancellation of license and warned the government not to test their patience. He demanded restoration Latif Afridi’s license and lashed out at the advisers of the government like Sardar Latif Khosa, Farook Naek and Babar Awan, who were responsible for the wrong advices.

He demanded removal of these officials and said that the government should undo wrongs done by Musharraf regime in the larger interest of the country.

HDBA Secretary Nisar Durrani said that people had great expectations that their destiny would change after Feb 18 and that Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry would be restored to his Nov 2, 2007 position.

But it appeared now that the rulers were in fact surpassing Pervez Musharraf in unpopular decisions but they must know that people were ready to lay down sacrifices for their rights, he said.

A senior lawyer Zahoor A. Baloch urged independent forces and lawyers to continue struggle with same vigour because it was always state which used repressive measures to crush popular struggles. He said that lawyers were struggling for the rights of people who would be the ultimate beneficiaries of the success of this struggle. Since the government had failed to defeat lawyers and did not find itself in a winning position, it was trying to buy their loyalties by cancelling their licenses, he said.

Awami Tehrik’s Ayaz Latif Palejo said that the reception given to Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in the USA must make America’s think-tanks and those who mattered there rethink that it was Justice Chaudhry who represented people of Pakistan and not its current ruling elite.

He deplored that policies being pursued by Pervez Musharraf continued under the present government and reminded those who were betraying chief justice and lawyers that history would always keep alive names of Justices Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, Nasir Aslam Zahid, Dorab Patel and others but no one would remember who served as attorney general, advocate general or federal law minister.