KARACHI, Nov 20: Lawyers at the City Courts and the Malir District Courts on Thursday observed their weekly boycott of legal proceedings as part of their sustained struggle for the reinstatement of the judges deposed by Pervez Musharraf in Nov last year and the restoration of independent judiciary.

They also took out a procession and staged a sit-in on the M. A. Jinnah Road.The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) held its general body meeting in the Shuhada-i-Punjab hall at the City Courts to reaffirm their resolve to continue the campaign.

Addressing the protesting lawyers, KBA leaders also condemned Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) action of suspending the practising licences of the Peshawar High Court Bar chief Latif Afridi, Multan High Court Bar chief Mahmood Ashraf Khan and general secretary Rana Naveed for alleged misconduct.

They alleged that the PBC had taken the decision at the behest of the government, which was frightened by the lawyers fraternity’s movement. They described the PBC move as a tactics to intimidate lawyers and pressure them to give up their movement.

They asked the lawyers’ apex body to withdraw the decision, and said that the lawyers fraternity would finalise their line of action on Saturday if the affected lawyers’ licences were not restored by then.

They termed that the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, “a symbol of independence of the judiciary”, and observed that US lawyers and citizens also acknowledged his struggle for the cause of free judiciary by paying tribute and decorating him with a prestigious award recently.

They called the recognition of Justice Iftikhar’s services as “a victory of the deposed judge and the lawyers’ struggle”.

The meeting also adopted a resolution urging all candidates for the Karachi Bar offices to attach to their nomination papers an oath of loyalty with the movement.

The participants marched towards the M.A. Jinnah in a procession after the meeting to staged a sit-in, during which vehicular traffic on the road remained suspended.