The move falls against the backdrop of a continuing struggle between Pakistan’s government and judiciary.
The Sindh Lawyers’ Movement hopes to resolve issues facing the judiciary and legal profession, improving Pakistan’s legal processes on a national and provincial level.

Government attacks

At a meeting in Karachi earlier this week, former Advocate General Sindh Masood A Noorani was elected chairman of the movement.
Also involved is Supreme Court Advocate Abdul Wahab Baloch, who told the meeting of a pressing need for lawyers to address problems in the province, declaring the group’s intention to uphold the rights of the people of Sindh against attacks from the government.

Provincial autonomy

The group aims to litigate on behalf of local residents and battle alleged corruption in the province’s courts. The movement will also reassert the issue of provincial autonomy, which, according to the publication Pakistan Today, the national government continues to ignore.
The development coincided with a speech from Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in which he applauded a previous lawyers’ movement that secured his reinstatement after he, and other judges, had been unconstitutionally sacked by President General Pervez Musharraf in 2007.