Attack on judge: Lawyers across the country to boycott courts today

Following the attack, high court, subordinate courts across the city wore deserted look as lawyers did not turn up.

KARACHI:

In a bid to register their protest against the brutal attack on Sindh High Court’s judge Justice Maqbool Baqar near Burnes Road, the legal fraternity  has announced a countrywide strike on Thursday.

At least nine people were killed in the bomb explosion on Wednesday. Following the attack, the high court and the subordinate courts across the city wore a deserted look as many lawyers did not turn up to work to express sorrow over the incident.

The Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) has made an earnest request to the Pakistan Bar Council, the Supreme Court Bar Association, provincial bar councils and the bar associations to join hands with it against what it described as an “attack on the judiciary”.

SHCBA president Mustafa Lakhani strongly condemned the attack on Justice Baqar, calling it a failure of the state to protect the lives and properties of the citizens. He said that high court lawyers would not appear in courts to plead their cases and a general body meeting of the association’s members would be held on Thursday.

President Karachi Bar Association (KBA) Naeem Qureshi lamented that the governemnt had failed to provide effective security to the members of the judiciary. He wondered how the incident could occur in a high-security zone of the city. After the lawyers, now the judges were being targeted, Qureshi regretted. The KBA members would observe a strike at the city courts and hold a general body meeting, he added.

Lawyes would also boycott legal proceedings at Malir District courts, announced Malir Bar Association president Ashraf Samon.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2013.