LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, March 23: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has announced its support to the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy’s call for a nationwide protest on Monday against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry despite the ARD wanting to keep a distance from the alliance of religious parties.
“The MMA is a separate alliance and they have their own programmes to follow,” ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim told Dawn on Friday.
The decision to give the protest call for March 26 was taken at a meeting between former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif in London on Wednesday to mobilise public opinion to uphold the sanctity and independence of the judiciary.
However, replying to a question, Mr Fahim said that if the MMA made a cooperation offer, the ARD would consider it.
MMA President Qazi Husain Ahmed said in a statement that the ‘combined opposition’ would protest on March 26.
MMA spokesman Shahid Shamsi said Qazi Hussain had directed the alliance’s office-bearers and workers to actively participate in the protest rallies on Monday.
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, when contacted, confirmed that Qazi Hussain and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, had talked to him and extended their maximum cooperation for the protest day.
He said Asfandyar Wali Khan of the Awami National Party and Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf had also supported the call.
Mr Haq said protest demonstrations would be held throughout the country to express solidarity with the chief justice and the lawyers.
He said the ARD had not given call for a strike.
People’s Party Parliamentarians information secretary Sherry Rehman said the ARD did not want to politicise the judicial issue but it had decided to fully support the lawyers in their struggle for the independence and supremacy of the judiciary by keeping a bipartisan approach.
She said PPP and PML-N leaders would be present in Rawalpindi on March 28 when the chief justice was expected to address the Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association.
She said joint meetings of the office-bearers of the two parties would be held at the district level on March 29 to chalk out a plan to hold protest demonstrations in all the districts.
Ms Rehman said the ARD leadership would be present outside the Supreme Court on April 3 when the chief justice would appear before the Supreme Judicial Council for the third time.
Mr Fahim said the PPP had formed a committee to monitor the judicial crisis regularly and give recommendations to the leadership to deal with the situation. The committee headed by Mr Fahim will comprise Mian Raza Rabbani, Jehangir Badr, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sherry Rehman, Enver Baig and Farzana Raja.
The committee, Mr Fahim said, could also meet diplomats based in Islamabad to inform them about the situation.
