GUJRAT, March 31: Participants in a lawyers' convention on Wednesday vowed to continue protest till the suspension of Gujrat DPO Raja Munawar Hussain expressed from service.

More than 200 lawyers from across the Gujranwala division attended the convention which was convened by the Gujrat Bar Association to elicit support against the Gujrat DPO who had misbehaved with senior lawyer Chaudhry Gulraiz Warraich.

Despite repeated strikes and boycott of courts by local lawyers, the authorities concerned have taken no action so far against the DPO. Speaking at the convention, Bar presidents and other office-bearers of other districts expressed solidarity with their Gujrat colleagues and vowed to join the protest.

The speakers included Mian Siddiq Bhatti (Hafizabad), Zahoor Ahmad Gondal (Mandi Bahauddin), Khan Muhammad Aslam Lodhi (Phalia), Arshad Mahmood Gondal (Malikwal), Chaudhry Ismail and Mian Irfan Habib (Kharian), Saifullah Cheema and Sarwar Awan of (Gujranwala).

The presidents and other officials of the Sialkot and Daska Bar spoke to the participants by telephone. Source told Dawn that local lawyers were divided over the issue of protest against the DPO.

They said that 14 members of the Gujrat DBA on Tuesday demanded that the convention should be postponed because local lawyers were divided over the issue.

They included Asjad Ghurral, Malik Iftikhar, Shafqatullah Butt, Mansoor Ahmad Warraich, Malik Anwar, Chaudhry Fiaz Ahmad, Malik Hamid Jamil, Waseem Afzal Jorra, Chaudhry Maqsood Gorali, Mehar Saleem, Shahbaz Fazal Siroya and Tariq Sarmad.

According to the sources, a group of lawyers had been struggling for the last many days to table a resolution in the Bar that the DPO should be apologized. More than 100 lawyers have signed the resolution. "However, most lawyers support the protest," they added.