March 11, 2007	Sunday	Safar 21, 1428

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QUETTA, March 10: Lawyers held a demonstration here on Saturday to condemn the suspension of the chief justice. The protesters vowed to continue the struggle against ‘unlawful acts’ of the government and protect the independence of the judiciary.

The lawyers, led by the Vice-Chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, Ali Ahmed Kurd, and Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Hadi Shakeel Ahmed, took out the procession from the District and Sessions Court, and after marching through various roads, terminated in front of the Balochistan Assembly building.

The lawyers chanted slogans in favour of suspended Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and against President Gen Pervez Musharraf, calling for the reinstatement of the ‘suspended’ Chief Justice.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Hadi, Mr Kurd, Senator Kamran Murtaza and Sakhi Sultan condemned the president’s move and termed the government action an assault on the freedom of the judiciary.

They said the president’s and the prime minister’s action was a violation of the Constitution as Article 209 did not empower the president or the prime minister to summon the Chief Justice to their offices.

Speakers said the deployment of security forces at the residence of the Chief Justice, disconnection of his telephones and not allowing any one to meet Justice Chaudhry manifest that the government was ‘perplexed over the unconstitutional act’.

They called upon the bar associations to forge unity for pre-empting the government’s move against the independent judges in order to dictate the judiciary to give verdicts in cases against the government according to wishes of the rulers.

Balochistan Bar Association President Malik Sikandar Khan and other lawyers did not attend demonstration.