KASUR, March 25 The bar and bench tension heightened in Punjab on Thursday when 30 sessions and civil judges of Kasur district decided to go on a two-day strike against the 'blackmail' of lawyers.

The Kasur episode surfaces at a time when the entire judiciary of Faisalabad is on strike against the slapping of a civil judge by a lawyer.

The local judiciary took the decision on Thursday night after 30 judges from Kasur, Pattoki and Chunian tehsils met under District and Sessions Judge Javid Rasheed Mahboobi.

Sources said the meeting decided that judges would boycott all courts of the district on Friday and Saturday. On Monday, the judges would submit their applications to the LHC for a one-month leave.

The meeting further demanded that during the leave period, all judges should be transferred from Kasur as they (the judges) could not work properly under such circumstances where they were being pressurised by the lawyers.

Earlier, in a press release the Kasur District Bar Association, headed by Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Tabassum, levelled allegations of corruption and rude behaviour against some judges.

The lawyers also decided to boycott the D&SJ court and demanded his transfer from Kasur within a week. They also threatened to boycott other courts in the district after a week.

The press release said the lawyers would see the LHC chief justice to seek transfer of the Kasur D&SJ.

The lawyers also opposed the National Judicial Policy and dubbed it as a 'murder of justice'.

The DBA press release, however, did not have the support of all office-bearers. The secretary-general, vice-president and seven other members of the DBA executive body did not endorse its contents.