Solidarity: Nine years after the outrage, no answers

Lawyers observe black day over Karachi killings during Emergency Plus.

LAHORE: Lawyers boycotted courts on Thursday over the killing of their colleagues lawyers in Karachi on May 12, 2007.

The Punjab Bar Council had announced a strike and had asked the lawyers to wear black armbands and hoist black flags on the bar buildings.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association held a general house meeting at Kiyani Hall in a show of solidarity with their colleagues.

Addressing the general house, LHCBA president Rana Zia Abdul Rehman said, “Whenever a dictator has tried to subvert the Constitution, lawyers have taken to the streets and suffered the oppression in their bid for restoring the Constitution.”

He said former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had no role in the lawyers’ movement except his refusal to step down. This, he said, had given impetus to the movement against the regime at the time.

“It was lawyers who started the struggle for democracy and took it to the logical end. It is not fair to associate the restoration of judiciary with only one person.”

The bar president presented a resolution before the general house which was carried unanimously.

The resolution condemned the killing of lawyers on May 12, 2007 in Karachi. The bar also demanded that the government investigate the May 12 deaths and make public findings of the investigation.

Former LHCBA president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari said, “The killings on May 12 were premeditated murder. Innocent people lost their lives and some lawyers were burnt alive. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and General (r) Musharraf were responsible for the violence.”

Former LHCBA president Ahmed Awais said families of the victims had suffered a lot.

“The beneficiaries of the lawyers’ movement have forgotten about the sacrifices of lawyers. The culprits of the May 12 killings should be brought to book.”

LHCBA secretary Muhammad Anas Ghazi said unconstitutional suspension of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had caused unrest in Sindh’s metropolitan after he arrived to address bar association’s meeting and a lawyers’ convention. He said the MQM had sided with the Musharaf’s regime at the time.

He said the government had used its machinery to block roads while police had failed to stop the violence.

He said May 12 was marked as a black day to remember those who were injured in the violence and killed.

In Faisalabad, lawyers led by the district bar association leaders observed black day. They staged a protest demonstration, wearing black armbands and observed a complete strike.

Talking to newsmen, a DBA spokesman said no one had been arrested and no inquiry report had been issued despite passage of nine years. He said the government should provide justice to families of the deceased.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2016.