Bar boycott: Courts closed for most of the week to protest murders

Lower courts worked for two days, SHC opened for only one day.

KARACHI: The courts in Karachi were closed for most of the week. The subordinate courts were open, however, for two days while the high court was open for a day only to protest against the killings of lawyers in Sindh and Punjab and because of the public holiday announced after the death of Pir Pagara.

Lawyers across Sindh boycotted work on Friday. The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) held a general body meeting on MA Jinnah Road and staged an hour-long sit-in against the murder of lawyer Maqboolur Rehman and an attack on a member of the bar, Malik Muhammad Sadiq, at Hub on Thursday.

Khalid Mumtaz, the secretary of the KBA, while addressing the bar association’s meeting at MA Jinnah Road, said that the government had failed in all aspects - political or administrative - and had lost the right to rule over Pakistan. He said that many lives could have been saved had the government provided them security.

He demanded that the Sindh and federal governments give in their resignations.

The Sindh High Court Bar Association also met on Friday. Its members expressed concern over increasing violence against lawyers.

They regretted that Maqboolur Rehman was not provided security even though he filed a petition requesting it after his life was threatened.

The bar demanded that the government pay compensation to the victim’s family and hold a prompt investigation into his murder.

The courts will also be closed on Saturday because the court staff go on pen-down strike on Friday and Saturday every week because their salaries were not increased even though the Sindh High Court ruled in their favour.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2012.