ISLAMABAD, March 10: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy on Saturday announced its complete support to lawyers in their protest against the suspension of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, by President Gen Pervez Musharraf on charges of misconduct and corruption.

“We are with lawyers in their struggle for the independence of judiciary,” said Opposition Leader in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani and ARD Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra while talking to Dawn separately on Saturday by telephone.

Mr Rabbani asked the government to tell the nation whether the chief justice was under house arrest or in detention of secret agencies. He criticised the government for not allowing a meeting of office-bearers of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) with Justice Iftikhar.

He regretted that the PBC and the SCBA members were stopped by police at the entrance of the official residence of the chief justice in Islamabad on Saturday.

Replying to a question about his party’s future strategy, Mr Rabbani said it would consider requisitioning the Senate session at an appropriate time and would soon contact opposition members to discuss the situation.

Mr Jhagra, who is also the secretary-general of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, said that his party chief Nawaz Sharif had directed the party leadership to extend full support to lawyers in their protest and struggle.

“We stand by them (lawyers) as the PML-N believed that the chief justice has been suspended unconstitutionally by Gen Musharraf,” Mr Jhagra said. Meanwhile, a spokesman for PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, Mr Farhatullah Babar, announced on Saturday that the PPP would support bar associations in their protest against “attempts to intimidate the judiciary.”

“Many people see the attempt to remove the second chief justice of the Supreme Court since the military coup of 1999 as an attempt to intimidate the judiciary and send a message to honourable members of the court that they too can be removed on so-called charges of corruption. Such charges have regularly been used to persecute those who oppose the regime,” Mr Babar said.

Mr Babar said that the PPP and other parties of the opposition were opposed to allowing Gen Musharraf to get himself re-elected as president from the present assemblies.