At the Sindh High Court, however, few lawyers observed the boycott and most of the matters listed before the various benches proceeded apace.
An estimated 276 undertrial prisoners were brought to the City Courts from different prisons in the city but had to return without being produced in court since lawyers refused to attend cases. Judges, however, remained in their chambers.
Meanwhile, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) announced that a fund is to be established for lawyers who were killed, injured, arrested or otherwise attacked during their struggle for the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution.
At a KBA general body meeting held at the City Courts’ Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall, KBA president Iftikhar Javed Qazi said that an amount of Rs0.1 million would be given to the families of each of the lawyers martyred during the struggle, each lawyer injured would receive Rs20,000, while every lawyer who suffered arrest would be given Rs10,000. Mr Qazi said that the lawyers would continue their movement undaunted until their objectives were achieved, while KBA general-secretary Naeem Qureshi demanded the immediate release of all the lawyers still in detention, including the top leadership of the Pakistan Bar Council.
‘Constitutional crisis’
A resolution moved on the occasion condemned the PCO and the suspension of the Constitution. It termed the Nov 3 imposition of an emergency an attempt to perpetuate an unconstitutional rule and to pre-empt the verdict of the Supreme Court bench that was to hear the case concerning General Musharraf’s eligibility as a presidential candidate. Calling the current situation the country’s “worst constitutional crisis,” the resolution stated that the legal community is “of the considered view that the so-called general elections called for January 8 shall be fraudulent and pre-rigged, and are meant to legitimise unconstitutional acts and orders.” Lawyers called upon the political parties, particularly those in opposition, to boycott the elections and asked politicians and civil society to prevent what the resolution termed a “fraudulent electoral exercise and join the lawyers in their demand that the status quo ante, as it prevailed on Nov 3 before the proclamation of the emergency, be restored forthwith.”
The meeting was also addressed by Haroon Khan, Waheed Baloch, Lal Shah, Sawar Khan and Mohammed Ali Abbassi. It was announced that the one-hour boycott of court proceedings would continue on a daily basis.
Few lawyers boycotted hearings at the Sindh High Court, however. Bar representatives said that the lawyers had suffered greatly because of the frequent boycotts since March 9. It was difficult for them to sustain a boycott campaign when cases were being dismissed for non-prosecution. They told Dawn that a new strategy would have to be devised in order to continue the protests without causing financial loss to legal practitioners. The bar representatives said that lawyers seized of bail matters and stay cases were under pressure from their clients to obtain relief.
Meanwhile, police and Rangers personnel were posted at the SHC entrance again, although their presence had been withdrawn only a couple of days ago.