Daily Times : Lawyers protest Musharraf’s re-election across country

Lawyers protest Musharraf’s re-election across country

* PHCBA president, secretary injured in clash with police
* Lawyers not allowed to reach Punjab Assembly
* Karachi lawyers tear-gassed

Staff Report | October 7, 2007

PESHAWAR / QUETTA / LAHORE / KARACHI : Lawyers in Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi staged rallies against the presidential election on Saturday, resulting in clashes between them and the police.

Lawyers in Peshawar protested in front of the Frontier Assembly building by preventing members of the assembly from voting. An armoured police vehicle rammed into the lawyers, fracturing PHCBA President Abdul Latif Afridi’s leg and injuring General Secretary Ishtiaq Ibrahim and the Town DSP.

The lawyers then set fire to the police vehicle and pelted fire fighters, police and the assembly building with stones until police tear-gassed the gathering.

Afridi told Daily Times that the lawyers had lodged an FIR against SSP (Operations) Mohammad Tahir and DSP Qasim, as they had ordered the attack on the lawyers. Chief Capital Police Abdul Majeed Marwat, however, termed the incident as an accident. Peshawar lawyers have called for a complete strike on October 8 to protest the police violence.

Police in Lahore stop rally: Meanwhile, lawyers in Lahore held rallies protesting the presidential election but could not reach the Punjab Assembly because of a heavy police contingent along the protest route.

Police personnel wielding shields and batons stopped a LBA rally on The Mall. A light but prolonged scuffle occurred, but the police held their ground.

A few hundred lawyers also came out from the LHC and gathered at GPO Chowk. A group of them tried to reach the Punjab Assembly but were barred by the police in front of the E-Plomer Building and returned.

Protests in Karachi and Quetta: Daily Times learnt that Quetta lawyers protested against the polling by staging a rally. The government had deployed a heavy contingent of law enforcement personnel and no untoward incident was reported. Also, small but unruly protests erupted in Karachi, reported AFP. Police tear-gassed one of the protests, a police official said.