March 12, 2007	Monday	Safar 22, 1428

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LAHORE, March 11: Police will be put on full alert on Monday (today) to stop a likely protest march by lawyers against the suspension of Iftikhar Chaudhry as Supreme Court chief justice.

Sources said on Sunday the police were directed to stop the protesters from reaching the Assembly Hall as the City District Government of Lahore had enforced Section 144 in the city which prevented gathering of more than four people.

The sources said a meeting of nine divisional superintendents of police was held under the chair of SSP (Operations) Aftab Cheema to make arrangements to maintain law and order and avert any untoward situation during the protest.

The sources said lawyers were likely to stage the rally from the Aiwan-i-Adl to the Punjab Assembly (Faisal Chowk) via The Mall to protest the suspension of the chief justice through a presidential reference.

Divisional SPs and representatives of lawyers held talks to discuss the postponement of the march, but both sides failed to reach any consensus.

SUPPORT: The Islamic Lawyers Movement (ILM) Pakistan has announced its support for the protest call given by various bar associations against making chief justice of Pakistan “non-functional”.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, ILM president and former high court bar chief Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari said the movement considered the president’s action against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as “unconstitutional, illegal and absurd.”

The illegal action had plunged the country into a serious turmoil, he said, adding that the ongoing judicial crisis proved the government’s weakness.

The reference sent by Gen Musharraf to the Supreme Judicial Council against the CJP reflected the designs of the military ruler to subjugate the superior judiciary, he said.

Justice Iftikhar is the chief justice unless the council gives a verdict against him after inquiring into the allegations levelled in the reference and until then no other judge can be appointed the acting CJP, he claimed.

Mr Ansari appealed to the lawyers’ community to take a firm stand against the action for the supremacy of the Constitution, independence of judiciary and rule of law.

“If the community does not rise now, history will never forgive them,” he said, and demanded that Justice Iftikhar should be allowed to move anywhere he likes.