LAHORE, March 9: Lawyers marked March 9 as black day to condemn the suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on March 9, 2007 by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf.

As the Pakistan Bar Council and other bar associations had given calls for the black day, protest meetings were held by bars and black flags were hoisted to denounce Musharraf's act.

At a general house meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, bar members renewed pledge to resist any unconstitutional move against democracy and judiciary. The house unanimously adopted a resolution presented by bar president Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry. The bar demanded that state institutions, including judiciary, should not to interfere in constitutional limits of others.

Addressing the house, Chaudhry said although they named March 9 as black day, it was a 'white day' day in some respects. He said this day made a history and no dictator would dare repeat such acts because of lawyers' movement.

Supreme Court Bar Association former president Asma Jahangir said lawyers criticised the superior judiciary, accusing it of nepotism and favouritism in elevation of judges. She said the condition of judiciary was not much different from other state institutions. She said if there was nepotism, favourtism and a lack of governance in other institutions, judiciary also had the same ills. She said “we do not want to get our people elevated as judges of high courts and the Supreme Court, but we want a judiciary, which deserves to be called 'my lord' in real sense of the term”.

Without naming, Ms Jahangir said a judge passed a pathetic order wherein he not only dismissed a government employee from service, but also recommended punishment for the people related to him. She said people who never appeared before courts as lawyers were being elevated to the bench. She pointed out that name of a lawyer was recommended for elevation as a judge who got practice licence of the Supreme Court a few days ago.