LAHORE:
Punjab lawyers will observe May 12 as a ‘black day’ (today) to express solidarity with the citizens of Karachi where 34 people were killed and over 140 injured on May 12, 2007 when the then-dysfunctional Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrived to address a lawyers’ convention.
The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) has given a call for strike and also asked the bars of the province to hold general house meetings to pay tribute to the lawyers’ movement and those who gave their lives for it.
The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and PbBC have independent plans to mark the ‘black day’.
The LHCBA has also announced a strike to express solidarity with the lawyers of Karachi.
It has scheduled a general house meeting in this regard and asked its members to ensure their participation in the meeting.
Lahore Bar Association president Shehzad Hasan Sheikh told bar members to observe a complete boycott of court proceedings.
He said they would wear black armbands and hoist black flags on the bar buildings to condemn the brutal attacks on lawyers’ movement workers.
He said after the general house meeting, they would hold a protest rally from Aiwan-i-Adl courts to the PMG Chowk on the Lower Mall.
On May 12, 2007, at least 34 people were killed and over 140 others injured at Shara-i-Faisal as rival political groups clashed soon after the arrival of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The CJ remained confined to the VIP Lounge of the airport throughout the day and returned to Islamabad without addressing a lawyers’ convention on the premises of the Sindh High Court.
Sindh government was accused of failing in its duty to maintain law and order in the city, however, then-adviser (on home affairs) to the Sindh chief minister Waseem Akhtar had blamed the chief justice for the breakdown in law and order and the deaths. Journalists too had protested after being manhandled at various locations.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2011.
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