The lawyers on Monday requested the judges not to attend the courts in protest against the humiliation of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and urged them to back their boycott.
In a protest meeting at Peshawar High Court Bar, all the city lawyers unanimously decided to continue their boycott of the court proceedings till the government restores the honour and dignity of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudry.
Addressing the lawyers meeting, senior lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi said that the military dictators have always damaged the image of the country and that the action of General Pervez Musharraf against the judiciary has proved that the military is not sincere with the country. He said that Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudry talked of giving relief to the people and issued strong remarks for the recovery of the missing people and was speaking about incidents in Balochistan. Therefore, he said that President General Pervez Musharraf filed a reference against him to clean his way.
Mr Afridi said that a local Taliban group in district Tank recently entered the bar room and threatened that if anyone dares to give argument against them in the courts he would be killed. He alleged that such incidents show that Musharraf himself is pushing the country towards Talibanization.
He termed the Supreme Judicial Council as drama, saying legal community would never accept the staging of such dramas. He said that lawyers' community knows that the decision has already been taken and the constitution of the council was just an eye-wash. Abdul Latif Afridi said that the three judges of the Supreme Judicial Council also facing charges, therefore, he said lawyers reject such council.
Qazi Mohammad Anwar advocate said that including president, the constitution does not allow anyone, including the president to call the chief justice to his office and seek explanation from him. He said that the struggle of the lawyers community is not for Iftikhar Chaudry, but it is the for the independence of the judiciary, who consider the protection of judiciary, law, constitution and law as their prime duty. He reiterated in unequivocal terms that legal community would never accept the rule of an individual and would continue their protest.