March 25, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1428

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LAHORE, March 24: Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) will hold a peaceful march from Nila Gumbad to the Lahore High Court on Monday (tomorrow) to express solidarity with the judiciary and the lawyers protesting against the suspension of chief Justice of Pakistan.

The decision was taken at an ARD meeting held under the chairmanship of Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi here on Saturday. The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, though not an ARD component, also participated in the meeting.

Mr Qureshi told reporters after the meeting that on Monday protest demonstrations would also be held at all divisional headquarters.

He clarified that the opposition had not given a call for business and transport strike.

He apprehended that the government could deploy some elements to create a law and order problem to provide the opposition parties with justification to impose emergency and delay the electoral process. However, he said the opposition parties would frustrate the designs of such elements.

Answering a question, he said the ARD would have no objection if the MMA supported the alliance’s demands and joined the protest demonstrations. But, he said, it would be better if the religious alliance parted ways with the PML-led coalition government in Balochistan and joined hands with the opposition.

Replying to another question, he said the ARD thanked the Awami National Party for its support to the alliance demands.

When a reporter referred to the `pro-government’ verdicts given by the suspended chief justice, Mr Qureshi said the opposition was not supporting a particular individual. Instead, he said, it was working for independence of the judiciary as an institution.

He said the credit must be given to Justice Chaudhry for resisting all pressures, and refusing to tender resignation. He also praised the judges who had tendered resignations to show solidarity with Justice Chaudhry.

Insisting that all allegations against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry were baseless, he demanded that the reference against him be withdrawn forthwith.

Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, Farzana Raja, Haji Azizur Rehman Chan, Abdul Qadir Shaheen, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq, Saifullah Saif, Manzoor Gilani, Ahsan Rashid, Omer Sarfraz Cheema and many others attended the meeting.