[JURIST] Pakistani lawyers Thursday boycotted legal proceedings in the country and continued to hold protests calling for the restoration of all judges ousted [JURIST report] by former President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] last November. According to local reports, some proceedings did go ahead [APP report] at the reconstituted Pakistani Supreme Court [official website], but many other courts, including the Lahore High Court [official website] were effectively closed [APP report] by the boycott. Also Tuesday, the Lahore district bar canceled the membership [News report] of Pakistan's new attorney general [JURIST report], Sardar Latif Khosa, for his lack of support for the reinstatements. Particularly contentious is the reinstatement of former supreme court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], which was ruled out [JURIST report] by law minister Farooq Naek in August. GEO Pakistan has more.

Last week, three judges who had been forced off the Supreme Court were reinstated [APP report; JURIST report] following clashes between lawyers and police [JURIST report] during a demonstration in Islamabad. Critics describe the recent reappointment [JURIST report] of some ousted judges as evidence of a "conspiracy" to undermine support for total reinstatement. The judges' dismissals contributed to Musharraf's resignation and the failure to completely reinstate them precipitated collapse of the coalition government [JURIST report] last month.