Pakistan Lawyers' Movement: A Losing Cause?

• Main Author: DAM, Shubhankar
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2008
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Public Law and Legal Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/1000/viewcontent/ALosingPlotJURISTFeb08.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

On 13 January, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) voted to end the continuous boycott of judges who swore oath's under the country's Provisional Constitution Order and to instead substitute "a complete boycott of the superior judiciary every Thursday and a one-hour token strike on a daily basis." Predictably, the decision created a furor: for many, it was a sell-out. Both the Lawyers National Action Committee (LNAC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) quickly denounced the decision as "contradictory" and "against the spirit of the lawyers' sacrifices." The provincial bar councils, the high court bar associations and the district bar associations echoed similar sentiments: they insisted on pursuing the strategy of continuous boycott.