PESHAWAR, May 2: The lawyers’ community on Friday observed boycott of the lower courts with the demand from leaders of the major political parties to restore the pre-Nov 3 judiciary without any conditionality.

The protesting lawyers expressed concern over the reported deal between Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim-N for fixing tenure of the chief justice of Pakistan and also curtailing powers of the judiciary.

The lawyers had responded to the boycott call given by vice-chairman of the NWFP Bar Council, Qazi Muhammad Naeem, and did not turn up before the subordinate courts.

Scores of cases fixed for hearing before different courts were put off due to non-appearance of the lawyers.

The Peshawar High Court Bar Association did not observe the boycott of the high court and lawyers continued to appear before different benches as per routine. However, the Peshawar District Bar Association (PDBA) followed the directives of the NWFP Bar Council.

PDBA’s president Fazlur Rehman Khan and secretary general Yasir Khattak addressing the lawyers said that their struggle would continue till the restoration of all the deposed judges.

They condemned the reported move by the PPP co-chairperson, Asif Ali Zardari, to cut short the tenure of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and also curtail his powers.

They called upon Mr Zardari and the PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif to restore the judiciary in accordance with the Murree declaration and not to attach any conditions to their restoration.

The lawyers stated that there was no mention of any constitutional package in the Murree declaration adding that the political leaders should not cheat the nation as reducing the powers of the judiciary would not be acceptable to the lawyers as well as other segments of the society.

The boycotting lawyers claimed that late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had also committed the same mistake and introduced amendments to the 1973 Constitution for weakening the judiciary. They added that history proved that Mr Bhutto’s act of ‘weakening’ the judiciary was wrong.

Our Correspondent adds from Timergara: The lawyers of Lower Dir boycotted court proceedings on Friday and took out a protest rally against what they called delaying tactics of the government to reinstate all the deposed judges.

The participants of the rally led by District Bar president Hazrat Rahman demanded of the government to restore the pre-Nov 3, 2007 judiciary according to the Bhurbhan accord.

The protesting lawyers while marching on the roads raised slogans against Pervez Musharraf and in favour of the deposed judges.

The speakers criticised the role being played by the PPP central leadership and warned that they would continue their struggle if the government did not fulfill its promise made with the people of Pakistan.