More than 80 days into a boycott of the district courts in the Faisalabad district, the lawyers have decided to cut down on their protest by two days.
The lawyers have been demanding a Lahore High Court bench in Faisalabad and had boycotted work in several districts.
In Faisalabad district, lawyers in Jaranwala, Samundri, Tandlianwala, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh and Chiniot had stopped working.
On Tuesday, however, Faisalabad District Bar Association president Mian Javaid Iqbal announced to bring down the strike to five days a week.
“The protesting lawyers will now appear in the court on every Monday and Tuesday.”
He also said that resuming work for two days should not be taken as “softening of their position. He said it did not mean that the lawyers had given up their demand for an LHC bench.
He said the decision was taken to provide relief to the litigants to bring down the number of pending cases.
He said a lawyers’ delegation had met the chief justice of Pakistan and the LHC chief justice in this connection and planned to meet them again.
Both the chief justices, he said, had agreed with the lawyers on rationale of their demand.
The chief justice of Pakistan, he added, had given the lawyers “a green signal”. He said the LHC CJ had asked them (lawyers) to keep the litigants in mind.
Iqbal said the LHC CJ had also formed a three-member committee to prepare a report on the matter by May 11.
He hoped that once the report was submitted, official announcements about setting an LHC bench in five divisions- Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Dera Ghazi Khan and Gujranwala- would be made.
Lawyers in Gujranwala continue seven-day strike
More than 8,000 cases are pending at the district courts in Gujranwala due to the lawyers’ strike for a Lahore High Court bench.
Some lawyers here had asked the bar members to call off the strike for two days a week, but bar members were adamant on continuing their boycott of courts until their demands were met.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2013.