LAHORE, July 2: Lawyers prepare for a strike across the Punjab on Saturday to register their protest on the situation obtaining in Gujrat where lawyers are agitating against the district police officer for about nine months now.

The Lahore High Court, in the meantime, restrained the Gujrat administration on Friday from registering a case against any lawyer without first obtaining the court's permission.

Justice Mohammad Bilal issued the restraint order on a writ petition seeking quashment of an FIR against Gujrat bar president Tariq Jeved Warraich registered on the charge of hooliganism in the bar room on June 28 when the bar was proceeding against some lawyers who appeared in courts on the 45th day of their boycott against the attitude of DPO Raja Munawwar.

A number of lawyers leaders, including Lahore High Court Bar Association president Ahmad Awais and vice-president Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Punjab Bar Council executive chairperson Pervez Inayat Malik, Lahore Bar Association president Mirza Hanif Baig and PBC former vice-chairman Ramzan Chaudhry appeared in the court on behalf of Mr Warraich.

They submitted that lawyers were not agitators but wanted to settle the conflict amicably. On the other hand, they stated, the administration had wasted a number of opportunities to resolve the issue for which lawyers held a number of meetings with the district and provincial administration.

They submitted that the DPO misbehaved with some lawyers in October 2003 and when the bar staged a protest, the DPO resorted to victimizing lawyers and their representatives.

The court called for a report from the district administration and adjourned further proceedings. Meanwhile, PBC vice-chairman Tanvirur Rehman Randhawa has appealed to the lawyers to boycott courts on Saturday.

In a message issued here on Friday, he appealed to them to hold meetings and adopt resolutions on the situation in Gujrat. Lawyers delegations headed by LHCBA president Ahmad Awais and Mr Randhawa left for Gujrat to participate in a meeting called for Saturday to express solidarity with the lawyers of Gujrat.