Balochistan Bar protests for 5th day

The Balochistan Bar Association (BBA) continued its province-wide partial boycott of court proceedings for the fifth day.

QUETTA: The Balochistan Bar Association (BBA) continued its province-wide partial boycott of court proceedings for a fifth consecutive day on Friday to protest against the kidnapping of a lawyer from Khuzdar district.

General Secretary of the Jhalawan Bar Association, Munir Ahmed Mirwani was abducted at gunpoint by unidentified men on June 17. His disappearance prompted the BBA to announce the strike during a press conference on June 25. Lawyers did not appear before the courts after 11 am and all cases in sessions and lower courts as well as those before the local magistrates were adjourned.

Addressing a press conference, BBA President Baz Mohammad Kakar said that lawyers will observe a complete boycott starting Monday and would devise a strategy to launch a more comprehensive campaign. “If the government fails to recover Mirwani, we will intensify our struggle and extend it to the whole of Pakistan,” he said.

Kakar claimed that government functionaries were indirectly involved in these abductions, which is why criminals are still at large and police and other law-enforcement agencies seemed to be taking no measures to arrest them.

Responding to a question, he said that the judiciary was not independent but was moving towards it. “State institutions are not obeying the judiciary’s orders and are using different tactics to avoid directives,” he said.

Criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, Kakar said that the public representatives were not meeting the people’s expectations and were silent over the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan.  He said that the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) is waiting for the report of the judicial commission on missing persons. “If the CJP does not take action on the missing persons issue, then obviously we will also protest against him for the sake of justice,” he said.

The strike was observed in many areas including Quetta, Kalat, Sibi, Khuzdar, Mastung, Mand and Turbat.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2010.