KARACHI, June 8: The Karachi Bar Association on Friday succeeded in getting the investigation of its case against the Sindh government and Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders transferred to the DIG Zone-II from the DIG Zone-I.
KBA General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi, who is a complainant in the case, had on Thursday accused the city police chief of using delaying tactics in entertaining the KBA’s request for the transfer of the case. Expressing doubts over a fair inquiry under a team regarded by lawyers as ‘biased’, the association had warned of a protest rally if the request was not entertained as per legal procedures.
On Friday, Mr Qureshi received a copy of CCPO Azhar Farooqui’s order on the transfer of the case.
He said that witnesses would now record their statements with the investigation officers concerned.
An FIR of the case, pertaining to an armed attack on a lawyers’ procession on May 12, was registered on May 19 by the City Courts police under the order of the District and Sessions Judge, South, Mohammad Azim. The lawyers had moved the court after police had refused to register the FIR.
PROTEST: Lawyers in the Sindh High Court, City Courts and Malir District Courts continued their protest on Friday against the presidential reference filed against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
They boycotted the court proceedings from 10.30am to 11.30am. Nine members of different bar associations observed a token hunger strike in their respective bars.
In the meantime, the Karachi Bar Association held a general body meeting at the Shuhda-i-Punjab Hall which was addressed by KBA General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi, KBA managing committee members K.K. Javaid, Abdul Hafeez Baloch, and senior lawyers Naheed Afzaal and Sarwar Mohammad Khan.
The lawyers said that the government was hatching a conspiracy to create a rift among the judges alleging that the affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court by the heads of the intelligence agencies were untrue. They said the affidavit submitted by the chief justice had already exposed the rulers.
They alleged that the government was using the agencies to weaken the lawyers’ movement for the independence of the judiciary. They reiterated that the lawyers were well aware of the tactics being used by the government and were fully united in their demand for the withdrawal of the reference filed against the chief justice.
STRIKE: Malir Bar Association President Zahoor Hussain Mehar announced that the association would observe a complete strike on Saturday and no lawyer would attend the court proceedings in protest against the curbs on the media.
He said the lawyers were fully supporting press freedom as guaranteed in the Constitution.