The coalition of opposition parties working to reform the country’s democratic process has condemned the Supreme Court decision to suspend a number of lawyers.

Fifty-six lawyers were suspended on Sunday, for submitting a petition to Supreme Court, highlighting the various issues with the judiciary.

The coalition released a statement about the suspension on Wednesday, where they expressed concern about the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision.

“This is no small matter, almost 56 lawyers. They collectively have over 500 ongoing cases and the Criminal Court itself has only 177 lawyers registered to them – a great number of whom do not practice in any legal profession. This means that given this suspension, there are only about 20 lawyers eligible to represent client at the court” MP Ahmed Mahloof said.

Mahloof further refuted claims that the lawyers who were suspended were all members of opposition parties.

The Supreme Court had suspended 54 lawyers – two were suspended earlier. The decision was made on Sunday night on the grounds of ‘contempt of court’.