March 27, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1428

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LAHORE, March 26: Hundreds of political leaders and activists on Monday marched from Neela Gumbad to the Lahore High Court building on The Mall in a show of solidarity with lawyers in their struggle for the independence of judiciary and revival of other state institutions.

Called by the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, the rally also attracted workers of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaaf and Labour Party Pakistan. The Awami National Party also joined the anti-government protest which was described by many a major show of street power in Lahore by the present opposition.

Carrying party flags and chanting anti-Musharraf slogans, opposition workers came in small processions to join the rally. A large number of women were conspicuous by their presence in the rally which remained a peaceful event.

A number of shops at Neela Gumabad and Anarkali Bazaar remained open because the ARD had given an assurance to traders that their protest would remain peaceful. Traffic on The Mall was disrupted for about 90 minutes when rally participants gathered outside the high court building. During this period police diverted traffic from two nearby crossings. A large number of policemen had been posted on the small route of the rally.

Despite joining hands for a ‘common cause’, all the parties tried to maintain their identities. When the rally participants reached the Lahore High Court, members of the Pakistan Bar Council, Punjab Bar Council and Lahore High Court Bar Association gave them a rousing reception at the gate.

A good number of participants then went inside the LHC building where the provincial presidents of the participant parties spoke. Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi (PPP), Sirdar Zulfiquar Ali Khosa (PML-N), Liaquat Baloch (MMA) and Ahsan Rasheed (PTI) expressed solidarity with the lawyers who, they said, were fighting for the restoration of the 1973 constitution, other state institutions, freedom of the judiciary and the end of military rule in Pakistan for good. They said their struggle would continue till the movement reached its logical end. They congratulated the party workers for making the rally ‘a resounding success’.

Outside on The Mall, former Punjab governor Malik Ghualm Mustafa Khar and

Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas delivered similar speeches and joined workers in staging a sit-in.

Punjab PPP general secretary Chaudhry Ghualm Abbas told Dawn that the ARD and other parties had also organised peaceful rallies at Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur although police tried to thwart their way. He claimed police had picked up about 1,000 workers from all over Punjab. He, however, said almost all of them were released by Monday evening.

He said that the police had stopped a PPP procession coming from Sialkot at Daska and then at Nandipur and tried to arrest Qamar Abas Chand, the tehsil PPP president, but workers foiled the police attempt. Similarly, he said, 100 workers were arrested from Ferozewala. Police also arrested workers from Shahdara, Nankana Sahib, Pasroor, Narang Mandi, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujrat and certain other parts of the province.

According to him, nearly 400 PPP workers were arrested from Lahore, about 300 from Rawalpindi, 100 from Multan, 60 from Sheikhupura and 50 from Nankana Sahib.

PML-N leader and MPA Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan told Dawn that the police had arrested about 500 of the party workers across the province. A majority of them were arrested from Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura and Okara.

He said police had stormed the house of Lahore vice-president Mian Zulfiquar Ali and insulted women. Similarly, the police entered the house of PML-N lawyers wing general secretary Mohammad Saeed Tahir Suleri at Makhdoomabad and also broke into the party office at Nisbet Road.