RAWALPINDI, March 7: The Wednesday dispute between lawyers and officials of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board spiraled, the next day, into matching strikes, as both lawyers and over 4,000 employees of the RCB and Chaklala Cantonment Board refused to work.

Protesters from the RCB allegedly burned down the cinema canteen that originally sparked the dispute.

The legal community and leaders of the Rawalpindi District Bar Association staged a demonstration at Kutchery Chowk, demanding that RCB CEO Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan, along with some of his officers, be immediately suspended.

The RCB officials are accused of beating and abusing two lawyers Raja Israr Abbasi, a former deputy speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly, and his brother, Raja Riaz Abbasi who brought a stay order against the RCB`s directive, issued to Nisar Ahmed, to vacate the Odeon Cinema canteen.The strike by cantonment board employees was equally dramatic. Wearing black armbands, the protestors shouted slogans against Nisar Ahmed and the FIRs filed against the CEO and other officials. Several carried large sticks, ready to retaliate in the event of physical attack. The strike has caused major inconveniences to Rawalpindi residents, as staff of all departments including water, buildings, house and property taxes, birth and death certificates and sanitation refused to work.

Raja Israr Abbasi told the press that Brigadier Nasarullah Khan Niazi, the Station Commander, invited leaders of the bar association to his office to address the issue. `We demanded that the cantonment officials be arrested or suspended for refusing to obey the court`s stay order,` he said, while `condemning` RCB officials for burning the canteen.

Brigadier Niazi also visited the protesting cantonment employees, but failed to convince them to return towork. After discussions with cantonment officials, he asked Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan and other employees named in the FIR to `go on leave` on Friday.

The RCB CEO argued that the charges leveled against him and his employees by the lawyers were `fake.` `There has to be a judicial inquiry into this matter,` he said, `and the courts must provide justice to government servants facing false allegations.` He claimed that the RCB had acted legally in asking Nisar Ahmed to vacate the Odeon Cinema canteen.

Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan acknowledged the inconvenience caused to the Rawalpindi public by the cantonment boards` strike. Claiming that the staff was expressing solidarity with him and the other accused officials, he noted that the strike could continue indefinitely. `I personally asked the RCB and CCB employees to end the strike,` he said, `but they are not ready to do so.