Black day: Lawyers remember fallen colleagues

Demand action against Musharraf, MQM for May 12 violence.

LAHORE:

Lawyers across the province staged protests and held general house meetings on Thursday to remember those killed in violence in Karachi on May 12, 2007, during the movement for the restoration of the chief justice of Pakistan.

The Punjab Bar Council had instructed all lawyers to observe a “black day” on Thursday. Lawyers boycotted the courts, hoisted black flags on bar premises and wore black armbands to condemn the violence of that day.

Members of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) marched from Aiwan-i-Adl to Post Master General Chowk chanting slogans condemning the government. The general house of the Lahore High Court Bar Association adopted a resolution demanding that the chief justice take suo motu notice of the events of May 12 and bring those responsible to justice.

Addressing the house, bar leaders and members condemned the killing of lawyers and political workers on that day and vowed never to forget their sacrifices. They said the “killing spree” in Karachi was carried out on the directions of then president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and MQM chief Altaf Hussain. They claimed that a command and control centre had been set up at Governor’s House in Karachi on the day to direct and monitor the violence.

LHCBA president Asghar Ali Gill said the whole legal community was in mourning at the deaths of their colleagues in the struggle for the restoration of the chief justice. He said the lawyers of Karachi, despite the violence perpetrated by the authorities, played a pivotal role in the movement.

Former LHCBA president Ahmed Awais said the MQM had through its actions on the day proved itself to be a “terrorist organisation”. He said the present government was an “extension of Musharraf rule”.

Shafqat Mehmood Chohan, Muhammad Azhar Sidique and Malik Munsif Awan also spoke at the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.