KARACHI: Lawyers boycotted legal proceedings on Thursday to observe a `black day` against the removal of over 60 superior court judges by the then president Gen Pervez Musharraf on Nov 3, 2007.

Back flags were hoisted on the premises of bar offices, while the members of legal fraternity wore black armbands.

The courts wore a deserted look as hundreds of cases fixed at the city courts and district courts in Malir for the day could not be taken up for hearing. In view of the `black day`, the jail authorities did not move the under-trial prisoners to courts.

Though UTPs were brought to the antiterrorism courts and other special courts, legal work was badly affected as the lawyers did not turn up.

The Sindh High Court also discharged the board (list of cases fixed for Thursday) on the request of lawyers. Judges heard only urgent matters in their chambers.

The then president Gen Musharraf, acting as army chief, had imposed a state of emergency in the country and promulgated the Provisional Constitution Order on Nov 3, 2007 and the resultant ouster of more than 60 judges of the superior judiciary.

The former military ruler was indicted in March 2014 by a three-judge special courtin the high treason case for his Nov 3 unconstitutional actions.

However, the special court declared him a proclaimed of fender since he did not turn up after leaving the country in March soon after the Supreme Court upheld the Sindh High Court directions to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

Lawyers in Hyderabad also boycotted court proceedings to join in their fraternity`s countrywide protest on the anniversary of the promulgation of emergency, our staff correspondent adds.

They stayed away from hearings at the Sindh High Court, district and sessions court and civil courts.

Judges at the high court turned up and heard cases till 11am but they stopped proceedings of remaining cases on a request made by the local chapter of the High Court Bar Association.

The bar`s president, Ayaz Tunio, informed the judges that the local chapter received the Pakistan Bar Council and Sindh Bar Council`s call for a boycott a belatedly.

The judges heard only a few cases of important nature in their chamber.

The bar`s executive committee held a meeting under the chairmanship of its president to condemn the Nov 3 emergency declared by the then president, Gen Pervez Musharraf.