The lawyers' community boycotted courts to express solidarity with the Pakistan People's Party over the Bhutto killing. Bar members also staged a rally on the Mall, chanting slogans against the government and President Pervez Musharraf and also demanded an inquest into the killing through international investigating agencies.
The bar then told political parties to boycott the elections. The bar members also joined a hunger-strike camp in the Lahore High Court Bar Association premises. President Muhammad Shah said the lawyers believed that the elections under the current judicial set-up would be meaningless and would never serve the object of the transfer of power to real representatives of the people of Pakistan.
He said the lawyers believed in democracy and the rule of law in the country and that they would continue struggling for the reinstatement of deposed judges, including Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
He praised the late Benazir Bhutto, saying she was a political and democratic leader and that after her death the country's political scenario might change. He said her death was a national lose. The Punjab Bar Council also prayed for Ms Bhutto with its vice chairman urging the bar members to continue snubbing the judges taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).