FAISALABAD, July 4: The local District Bar Association announced that it would observe a complete strike and bring out a protest rally on July 9 to press for setting up a bench of the Lahore High Court in Faisalabad.

At a meeting here on Friday with DBA vice-president Chaudhry Ilumddin in the chair, it was pointed out that President Pervez Musharraf during his referendum campaign had assured local lawyers community that a bench of the High Court would be established in Faisalabad. But no step had so far been taken in this regard by officials concerned.

The meeting was further told that work on this issue had been started speedily, but all of a sudden it was sent in the cold storage.

Local lawyers unanimously decided that a chain of protest meetings, rallies and strikes would be observed for pressing the government to take a bold stand on this important issue.

The meeting decided that a complete strike would be observed on July 9 and none of the lawyers would appear before courts throughout the day. A protest rally would also be taken out from DBA Offices which would march on different city roads.

The DBA also called a special meeting on the same day for deciding the future line of action for building up pressure on the government.

Meanwhile, the DBA had demanded stern action against Peoples Colony SHO Mehmood Sardar for misbehaving with lawyer Irshad Ahmed when the latter visited the police station on the other day.