April 12, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 11: All the sides battling for “the honour of judiciary” have finalised their strategies for Friday when the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) resumes hearing the presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Opposition political parties, civil society organizations (CSOs) and lawyers’ bodies plan protests on the occasion at the Supreme Court and the government has prepared to counter them.

It will be the fourth hearing of the highly emotive case which is being keenly watched by people at home and abroad with some foreboding.

Dawn has been told that the opposition and the lawyers’ community are determined to put up a strong protest and the government is equally determined to put it down.

A senior official said the capital administration had instructions to utilise “all resources” to maintain law and order.

Accordingly, heavy contingents of Rangers and Islamabad and Punjab police would be deployed at all entry points of the city and approaches to the Supreme Court building on the Constitution Avenue would be closed for all kinds of traffic on Friday.

Only lawyers and media persons would be permitted to go to the court. Checkposts would be set up at various points in Islamabad and Rawalpindi for the purpose.

However, the official did not disclose what treatment awaits the political leaders and activists arriving for the protest.

Except for the first SJC hearing on March 13, when several lawyers and policemen were injured in clashes, the subsequent protests had remained largely peaceful.

Since a coordinated and strong protest was planned on Friday by the opposition parties and lawyers, the government was alleged to have a plan to bring lawyers supporting the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) from different cities to hold a rally in support of President Gen Musharraf.

Such an attempt on the last SJC hearing on April 3 had resulted in a few PML supporters being beaten up by anti- Musharraf lawyers.

Bar associations are meeting in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss their strategy for keeping Friday’s protest peaceful and their integrity intact.

Vice President of the Islamabad Bar Association Mohammad Iqbal Tanoli asserted that a large number of government lawyers and ruling party activists had already reached Islamabad from different districts of Punjab.

He alleged that “the Chaudhry brothers (PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his cousin Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the Punjab chief minister) have arranged hundreds of fake identity cards of Punjab Bar Council for their party activists so that they could move freely with the genuine lawyers.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday issued special guidelines to bar members, media and general public visiting the Supreme Court during the SJC hearing days.

A press release of the court said “advocates of the Supreme Court and advocates-on-record whose cases are fixed for hearing before any of the benches on such days will be allowed entry. The litigants visiting the courts on such days will be allowed entry on proof of identity”.

“Media personnel interested in the coverage of routine proceedings of the court may enter the courtrooms. However, they are not allowed to carry mobile phones and cameras beyond the public reception.”

The Supreme Court expected that the advocates, media personnel and members of the general public “shall strictly observe the general norms of decorum and propriety associated with the dignity of the apex court”.

Though the opposition parties have publicly promised “a more coordinated and strong protest this time”, local chapters of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) met separately on Wednesday to prepare for that “show of solidarity” with the suspended chief justice.

All the opposition parties have directed their legislators and activists to reach the SC on Friday.

PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim and ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday to participate in the protest.

Representatives of civil society organisations told Dawn that they would also be there but, like the lawyers, would keep a distance from the politicians’ show.