LAHORE : Due to the boycott of the strike announced by Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) against the filing of reference against Justice Qazi Faez Esa, the legal proceedings remained continued in the lower courts and the Lahore High Court here on Friday. The Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Lahore Bar Association had earlier distanced themselves from the PBC call to go on strike yesterday so as to express solidarity with the judges. The lawyers appeared in the lower courts as well as the High Court and did not boycotted the legal proceedings. Both the bar associations in their general house meetings had announced not to observe strike and the lawyers would appear before courts as a routine. In the general house meeting of the LHCBA, five resolutions on the issue of a reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa were taken up but the meeting could not continue due to rumpus created by the lawyers groups. The sloganeering by the lawyers both supporting and opposing the government’s decision made it difficult to continue with the proceedings of the house.
When asked, some of the lawyers said that that the government should not withdraw reference against the judge. They showed full trust in the Supreme Judicial Council and said the allegations leveled against the judges in the reference should be thoroughly investigated.
When contacted LHCBA Secretary Hassan Iqbal said the bar refused to go on strike on the call of PBC. He said that he was always against strikes which create impediments in the provision of justice to the litigants.