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Pakistani lawyers end boycott, to return to court

ISLAMABAD: Amid divisions within the legal community, Pakistan’s lawyers have ended a more than two-month long complete boycott of the “Provisional Constitutional Order” judges-manned superior courts, restricting their protest only to Thursdays.

But leaders of the lawyers’ movement said this did not signal their acceptance of the “PCO judges,” so called because they were sworn in under the provisional constitutional order that came in with the November 3 emergency.

The judges have since reverted to their allegiance to the Constitution through a fresh swearing-in when the Emergency was lifted. Lawyers also said they were still committed to the restoration of the pre-November 3 judiciary, and that was why they had kept the weekly boycott of the High Courts and the Supreme Court.

To drive home the point, lawyers boycotted the higher courts on Thursday and held rallies in many parts of the country demanding the release of the ousted Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhary, and his reinstatement along with sacked judges. The decision to end the total boycott of the courts came at a stormy meeting of the Pakistan Bar Council last Saturday.

The meeting was held in Peshawar, provincial capital of the North-West Frontier Province.

The decision was opposed strongly by a section of the lawyers who said it was tantamount to endorsing the “doctrine of necessity,” but the PBC said it was not a direction to the legal community to embrace the PCO judges, but only “a concession” in the interests of litigants whose cases were pending before the courts.

But it is also true that the legal community-led movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Chaudhary and the other judges was eclipsed in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the fast-paced developments thereafter.

Athar Minallah, prominent lawyer and an aide of Chief Justice Chaudhary, who was present at the PBC meeting and was one of those who opposed the decision to end the boycott, said Benazir’s killing had only strengthened the resolve of the lawyers to carry on with their struggle.

But lawyers said while they were still against the PCO judges, they also had to earn a living and also had to prevent their cases already in court from being thrown out for non-appearance.

“If you took a poll among lawyers, most of them would be for the restoration of the November 2 judiciary. But lawyers also have the problem that an indefinite boycott starts affecting their work and we all have to make a living,” said Anees Jillani, a Supreme Court lawyer.

Last week, the government asked Mr. Chaudhary to vacate his home so that the incumbent could move in, but the former Chief Justice has so far stood his ground.

On Wednesday, the government withdrew a “protective” police cordon around the house of Justice Rana Bhagwandas in Karachi, and the restrictions on his movements after protests that he had been put back under house arrest.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Thursday deplored the disconnection of water connections to the residence of ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.

“Such tactics are often employed by rowdy “kabza” (capture) groups to harass people. It is most regrettable that the present regime has behaved worse. The continued illegal detention of Chief Justice Choadhary and his family members is a scandal. It finds no parallel in any other country,” the HRCP said in a statement.

It also condemned the continued detention of leaders of bar associations Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Tariq Mehmood, and the denial of proper medical treatment to them. The HRCP, headed by eminent lawyer Asma Jahangir, said it had resolved to continue to support efforts aimed at the restoration of the November 2 judiciary. It would “renew with greater vigor” its campaign for the release of judges and lawyers.

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