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| March 20, 2007 | Tuesday | Safar 30, 1428 |
ANP holds protest over CJ issue
PESHAWAR, March 19: The Awami National Party on Monday held protests and set up hunger strike camps in front of the Peshawar Press Club and in several district headquarters of the NWFP against the suspension of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
ANP activists along with their central and provincial leadership sat in the protest camps. They include ANP senior vice-president Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, information secretary Zahid Khan, provincial president Bashir Ahmed Bilour, general-secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Syed Aqil Shah, Imran Afridi, Latif Afridi, Mian Mushtaq, Arbab Tahir Khan, Malik Mustafa and Hameedur Rehman.
The ANP provincial general-secretary told journalists that various delegations and representatives of political parties, lawyers, traders and students visited the Peshawar camp.
Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said that General Musharraf had first removed an elected government and then subjugated all democratic and state institutions like parliament, executive, judiciary and now the press. He said the general had launched army operations against the people of Balochistan, Waziristan and the Bajaur Agency.
He said that generals were being inducted into civil institutions. He pointed out that the whole nation had risen against General Musharraf and added that he should now resign from his office.
Mr Bilour suggested that an impartial caretaker government should be set up to hold free and fair elections.
Zahid Khan said that the ANP had never accepted General Musharraf as constitutional president nor would it do so in future, adding that all the actions taken by the general were ‘unconstitutional’.
He said that General Musharraf had insulted the whole nation and legal fraternity reportedly by calling the Chief Justice of Pakistan to the Army House, adding that the ANP fully supported the lawyers’ community in their struggle against the dictator.
Mr Khan said that all political parties should join hands against the military regime, adding that both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto should return to lead their parties against Gen Musharraf.
He said the present government was creating the law and order situation and fanning extremism in the NWFP and tribal areas in order to win sympathies of the US and other western countries.
SWABI: Speaking at a hunger strike camp in Swabi, ANP leaders said that their party always rose against dictators and advocated for the independence of judiciary and real democratic order.
They said the government was responsible for the present judicial crisis, adding that the best option for the rulers was to uphold the independence of judiciary in accordance with the 1973 Constitution.
They demanded that the status of Justice Chaudhry should be restored.
HARIPUR: ANP district president Fiaz Hussain, general-secretary Shaukat Mishwani and office-bearers of Ghazi and Haripur tehsils addressed the party workers at the hunger strike camp set up at Chowk Panian.
Fiaz Hussain criticised the action against Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and termed it a recipe for disaster. He said that the reference against Justice Chaudhry and attack on a private TV channel was indicative of General Musharraf’s quest for conquering every institution by force.
He said the government was engaged in “extra-constitutional activities” only to divert the public attention from worsening law and order, unemployment, price-hike and corruption of its functionaries.
MANSEHRA: Meanwhile, lawyers in Mansehra also observed a token hunger strike and boycotted court proceedings for one hour on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council.
Speaking on the occasion, Advocate Syed Munzoor said that protests against the government’s “unconstitutional and unlawful” action would continue till the reinstatement of Justice Iftikhar.
He called upon political parties to come forward and join lawyers in their struggle for the independence of judiciary.
Earlier, the District Bar Association in a meeting condemned the baton-charge on lawyers’ convention in Lahore.
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