KARACHI, June 18: Legal proceedings at the city courts remained suspended on Monday as lawyers observed a boycott to express solidarity with the chief justice of Pakistan and the apex court.

The Karachi Bar Association president had on Saturday given a province-wide boycott call against ‘conspiracies being hatched against the CJP and the Supreme Court’ following a lawyers’ convention attended by representatives of all district bar associations of Sindh and the vice chairman of the Sindh Bar Council.

On Monday, undertrial prisoners were not brought to the city courts and proceedings at the special courts and the Sindh High Court were also partially disturbed due to the lawyers’ boycott.

However, the Malir Bar Association decided not to observe a boycott of the courts.

Speaking at a general body meeting of the KBA held in the Shuhada-i-Punjab hall of the city courts, the lawyers’ representatives were of the view that the government was behind the conspiracies being hatched against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the Supreme Court.

They alleged that the PPP-led coalition government was against the independent judiciary and consistently defying its verdicts.

KBA President Mahmoodul Hasan said that the decision to ban entry of Aitzaz Ahsan and Zahid Bukhari in the district bar associations of the province was taken at the lawyers’ convention. Mr Ahsan, he said, remained a silent spectator when the Attorney General for Pakistan had misbehaved with the judges of the apex court while Mr Bukhari accompanied his client during a press conference in which the CJP and the higher judiciary was contemptuously targeted.

After the general body meeting, the lawyers took out a rally from the KBA office and staged a sit-in on M.A. Jinnah Road. Their sit-in caused suspension of vehicular traffic on the busy artery. Later, the lawyers dispersed peacefully.

Meanwhile, the office-bearers of the Malir bar decided not to boycott the courts in their general body meeting held at its office on Monday.

Malir Bar President Ashraf Samoo said that the bar had played an important role in the past for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and would repeat the same whenever the independence of judiciary was in danger.

However, he alleged that some political elements in the legal fraternity were trying to give a wrong impression.

He also condemned the decision to ban the entry of Aitzaz Ahsan in the district bar associations of the province.