ISLAMABAD, April 24: The government on Tuesday brought its supporters to the road to counter the protest campaign of lawyers and opposition parties against the ‘suspension’ of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League staged a rally in a bid to match the protests by lawyers and demonstrations held by opposition parties during the sixth appearance of the CJ before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Security personnel kept the two sides at a distance from each other.
Sources told Dawn that the decision to hold the PML rally had been taken at a meeting presided over by President Pervez Musharraf shortly before he left for his foreign visit.
The supporters of the government led by PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and four ministers came on the road for the first time since the judicial crisis broke out. Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, Health Minister Naseer Khan, Minister for State and Frontier Regions Yar Mohammad Rind and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Kamil Ali Agha took part in the rally.
The government had earlier criticised the opposition saying that it should not use street protests on the issue of the presidential reference against the CJ and let the SJC decide it.
Tension mounted at about 10.30am when the supporters of the president reached the Jinnah Avenue and wanted to proceed to the Constitution Avenue where lawyers and workers and leaders of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), PML (Nawaz), Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) were already there. Police, rangers and officials of the local administration stopped the CJ’s supporters at the D Chowk in front of the Parliament House. The supporters of the president were blocked at a place about 500 yards from the chowk.
The lawyers and opposition activists were infuriated when they saw the PML rally. They began chanting slogans against the president and burnt posters carrying his picture. Workers of the ruling party carrying banners and posters of President Musharraf held a meeting and dispersed an hour later. Chaudhry Shujaat and the information minister delivered speeches criticising opposition parties.
Mr Durrani claimed that about 100,000 people had taken part in the PML rally. He said about two million people would participate in the PML demonstration during the next hearing of the reference on May 2.
He urged people to come out in support of the president. “The judiciary is free and we will accept any decision of the SJC,” he said.
National Crisis Management Cell Director-General Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema said at a press conference that no untoward incident had taken place in any part of the country during the countrywide protest by lawyers and opposition parties.
“Every political party has the right to express its views. “If the opposition parties can come on the roads in support of the CJ then why can’t the ruling PML do so,” he said.
“The supporters of the president will not be stopped from staging any demonstration in future,” Brig Cheema said while replying to a question.
The CJ reached the SC for the hearing at about 9.30am and left the court after conclusion of the hearing at 3pm.
He was accorded a warm welcome by hundreds of lawyers and opposition workers and leaders. Police and Rangers were deployed at different places and roads leading to the Constitution Avenue. Many roads were barricaded, causing problems for citizens. A family had come from Karachi by road with two children to express support for the CJ outside the SC. “People from all walks of life should come forward and raise their voice against the government’s move against judiciary,” the head of the family, Zafar Iqbal, said.
Besides some ministers, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, younger brother of Chaudhry Shujaat, played a key role in organizing the rally and bringing to the capital a large number of participants from far away places, sources said.
PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who led the rally, declared that hundreds of thousands of people would gather outside the Supreme Court building on May 12 rally to foil the opposition’s plan to pressurize the Supreme Judicial Council and influence the judiciary.
He severely criticized the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leaders and said they were hypocrites. He warned them that if they did not stop exploiting the name of Islam he would expose them.
He reiterated his demand that anyone making insulting and derogatory remarks against the armed forces should be shot.
He asked opposition parties not to pressurize the judiciary and avoid creating a law and order situation by politicizing the presidential reference, which was purely a judicial and constitutional matter.
He said if the opposition continued to hold demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of lawyers and PML workers would gather in Islamabad on May 12 to express solidarity with the judiciary.
