Daily Times

LAHORE: Lawyers in the provincial capital on Friday observed black day to mourn the burning of innocent lawyers in Karachi on May 12, 2007, when then deposed chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was scheduled to address the Sindh High Court.

The lawyers appeared before courts wearing black armbands and bar associations organised protest meetings to condemn the incident. Black flags were also hoisted on the offices of the bar councils and bar associations.

The bar associations organised protest meetings to condemn the incident and failure of the government to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) held a condolence meeting, in which its Acting President Rashad Lodhi said that the lawyers had to face brutalities of military rulers in their struggle for the rule of law and supremacy of judiciary. He said that the main culprits of barbarian action against the legal fraternity were former dictator Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf and his allied party, the MQM.

He said that it was tragic that democratic rulers after restoration of judiciary betrayed the sacrifices of lawyers and innocent people rendered for the supremacy of law in the country by not punishing those responsible for the Karachi and Sahiwal carnages. He said that it was highly condemnable that the families of the martyred were still in search of justice.

He demanded the sitting chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice and bring the perpetrators to justice. Finance Secretary Muhammad Zaheer Butt said that since the very creation of Pakistan till today, the lawyers’ services had remained remarkable. He said that the lawyers laid down their lives for the rule of law in the country but the rulers never paid heed to it. He pledged that the lawyers’ struggle would continue till the culprits were brought before the law.