LAHORE, May 23: City lawyers will boycott court proceedings across the province on Saturday (today) and travel to Faisalabad to welcome ‘deposed’ chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry at an All Pakistan Lawyers’ Convention.

A committee headed by Supreme Court Bar Association Vice-President Ghulam Nabi Bhatti left Lahore for Faisalabad to make preparations for the welcome and convention.

Lahore High Court Bar Association and Lahore Bar Association have arranged buses for lawyers. Many lawyers said they would reach the venue on their own.

LHCBA Secretary Rana Asadullah Khan said the presence of Justice Chaudhry at the convention would mobilise the lawyers’ movement for the independence of judiciary and the rule of law.

Lawyers from Lahore, Multan, Kasur, Sahiwal, Rawalpindi, Rahim Yar Khan, Peshawar and Quetta will also attend the convention. Bar office-bearers coordinated with lawyers in other parts of the Punjab to make the convention a success.

Lawyers see the convention litmus test to their June 10 long march.

The bar secretary added the convention would set the stage for the movement and signal to political parties that they could not escape their mandate of restoring the chief justice. He added unless the chief justice was restored along with all other judges, lawyers would continue their struggle. After the convention in Faislabad, a convention is scheduled to be held in Peshawar on May 31 followed by another one in Lahore on June 9 — a day before the long march starting from Multan. —Reporter