KARACHI, May 24: Lawyers at the Sindh High Court, the City Courts and the Malir District Court on Thursday boycotted the courts proceedings for a full day and took out a protest rally from the City Courts to the Karachi Press Club in response to a call given by the Pakistan Bar Council against the suspension of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Under-trial prisoners were not brought from prisons and premises of all courts wore a deserted look. Vending and other commercial activities in and around the courts remained suspended for the day.
Participants of the rally, organised by the Karachi Bar Association, emerged from the City Courts in a procession and blocked the adjacent M.A. Jinnah Road for about 30 minutes before marching along Hassan Ali Effendi Road, Shahrah-i-Liaquat and Court Road to converge on the main gate of the Sindh High Court where members of the Pakistan Bar Council, the Sindh Bar Council and the Sindh High Court Bar Association joined them.
Later, the lawyers marched up to the KPC along with leaders and workers of various political parties.
Addressing the participants, PBC member Mohammad Yaseen Azad criticised Gen Pervez Musharraf and his allies for levelling false allegations against the CJP to suspend him, and also accused the military ruler and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement of being responsible for the May 12 mayhem in Karachi. He claimed that by blocking all major thoroughfares in the city with heavy containers and big vehicles, the MQM wanted to show to Gen Musharraf that the party had the potential to do what the Chaudhrys of Punjab could not.
Sindh Bar Council member Sati M. Ishaq also held the MQM responsible for what happened on Karachi’s streets on May 12. He said lawyers would continue to raise their voice against dictators and their allies.
KBA President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi, ruling out talks with the rulers, said lawyers did believe in a dialogue based on arguments, logic and truth, adding that the rulers were in the habit of deceiving people and flouting the law of the land. He pointed out that the road blockade on May 12 was a glaring example of the sheer violation of relevant laws but no official was booked for ordering or executing the blockade.
He said police would register cases against hundreds of cases of minor and major crimes routinely but they did not move against anyone involved in the shooting spree on May 12. He claimed that the mayhem was a pre-planned conspiracy to crush the lawyers’ movement but lawyers did not retaliate.
KBA General Secretary Naeem Qureshi said the legal fraternity remained peaceful and would remain so but the government should not take this as its weakness.
He said Gen Musharraf could not suppress the lawyers’ struggle. He said the military ruler was not ready to shed his uniform but he would be forced by masses to quit as military chief.
A former KBA president Mehmood-ul-Hassan, President of the People’s Lawyers Forum Shahadat Awan, President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Saleem Zia, Jamaat-i-Islami MNA Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, General-Secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Shabbir Abu Talib, General-Secretary of the National Party Hasil Bizenjo, a leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Zubair Khan, and Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz chief Abdul Khaliq Junejo also spoke on the occasion.