LAHORE, July 13: The Gujrat district bar ended its two-month boycott of courts on Tuesday despite the fact that its demand for transfer of DPO Munawwar Husain Raja was yet to be met.

According to Punjab Bar Council executive committee chairperson Pervez Inayat Malik, who received a delegation of lawyers from Gujrat, the district bar had resolved to end its strike through a resolution adopted at a meeting with president Tariq Javed Warraich in the chair.

The bar decided to change the modality of the protest by going on a token hunger-strike from Wednesday. According to Mr Malik, Gujrat lawyers would go on strike in batches of five everyday in support of their demand for DPO's transfer.

According to another decision, lawyers of Gujrat would observe another full-day strike by staying away from courts on Thursday. The Gujrat bar, according to him, would employ a variety of ways of protest which would continue till the DPO was transferred. It was a principled stand on which there would be no compromise, he added.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Bar Council executive committee chairperson has exonerated 21 lawyers of Gujrat from charges of misconduct and restored their membership.

The decision was taken by committee chairperson Pervez Inayat Malik after the lawyers gave an undertaking that they had neither supported the DPO nor violated bar's discipline. They also stated in black and white that they would remain committed to the bar discipline.

The PBC had issued notices on charges of misconduct to 22 Gujrat lawyers and suspended their membership of the local bar. They appeared before PBC' discipline committee on July 10 and gave a similar undertaking. The committee absolved 21 of them of the charges.

Only former MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Husain Dhudra was not let off because he was a complainant in cases registered against bar president Mr Warraich and other office-bearers. His case was later sent to a Lahore High Court tribunal for cancellation of his professional licence.

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