May 05, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1428

LAHORE, May 4: Lawyers and opposition parties condemned large-scale arrests in Punjab by the government to stop people from joining the CJP’s motorcade or attend his reception.

“It is a dirty game, but you just see there would be thousands of people to receive the chief justice in Lahore,” Supreme Court Bar president Munir A Malik said from Islamabad. “We are ready. We are leaving Islamabad early morning on Saturday and we will reach Lahore well in time.”

Mr Malik claimed not only the arrests, but the government was using every tactic available to harass and intimidate lawyers and political activists to keep them away from the reception. “Families of lawyers are being threatened of dire consequences, and lawyers are also being offered various incentives to restrain them from participating in the reception,” he said.

Punjab PPP Secretary-General Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas said his party leaders and workers would be there on the GT Road to welcome the CJP on every point. “It will the PPP rule on the GT Road on Saturday”, he said.

He alleged that the government was harassing the PPP supporters and hundreds of people had been arrested from various districts. However, he said, such moves would not dampen the morale of the party.

Commenting on the ruling party’s plan to hold a rally in the city, the PPP leader said the organizers were trying to play with the future of the country. Instead of holding a rally on the very day the opposition parties and lawyers were scheduled to, they should have held it on some other day, Ghulam Abbas said.

He said the ruling party was paving the way for the imposition of emergency rule or martial law.

The PPP leader said special arrangements had been made to receive the CJP At Shahdara, Minar-i-Pakistan Chowk, Nasser Bagh and GPO Chowk.

Punjab PML-N President Zulfikar Khosa told Dawn that his party leaders and workers would receive Justice Chaudhry on the entire Rawalpindi-Lahore route. District organizations would welcome the CJP in their respective territorial jurisdictions and then accompany him to Lahore.

He denied that the opposition was trying to politicize what was essentially a constitutional issue. Those in power had destroyed all state institutions and the judiciary was their latest target, he alleged.

Khosa said nobody would have had any objection if Justice Chaudhry had been proceeded against as a result of the Supreme Judicial Council’s recommendations. But, he said, the “all-powerful president” had taken the action first and referred the matter to the SJC subsequently.

Ruling PML provincial Secretary-General Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said his party would be holding a rally in the city on Saturday to condemn the parties, groups and individuals trying to pressurize the judiciary.

Party leaders, workers and nazims would march from Luxmi Chowk to the GPO Chowk to demand that courts should be allowed to function independently.

“We don’t want a clash with the opposition parties or their lawyers. But we want to put across our point of view quite firmly”.

He said the ruling party was to come out on the streets as its silence was being misconstrued as weakness.

The party’s Lahore President Mian Munir said instead of politicizing the CJP issue, all parties should accept any decision taken by the Supreme Judicial Council. He said his party workers would stay peaceful, although they would raise slogans in support of their demands.

PTI: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairperson Imran Khan on Friday issued a passionate appeal to the people to give an unprecedented welcome to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on his arrival in Lahore on Saturday (today).

Speaking at a news conference, Mr Khan said he would himself lead a rally for the reception of the CJP at Chowk Data Darbar as a mark of respect for a person who had for the first time shaken the regime to the hilt and led a movement that was projected at the restoration of democracy and state institutions.

He particularly called on the traders’ community to come forward to play a historic role.

He said the lawyers’ struggle had come at a time when poverty was on the increase and unemployment had assumed alarming proportions.

RANA IJAZ: Advocate Rana Ijaz Ahmad Khan, a former adviser to the Punjab government, told a news conference here on Friday that he, on behalf of his human rights committee, would present to the CJP a gold crown in recognition of his services for a principled stand.

Rana Ijaz was relieved by the government after a Lahore High Court decision in November 2006 directing the provincial administration to keep a number of advisers which was permitted under the Constitution.

Terming his association with the government `a black period of my career’, Rana Ijaz said the reference against Justice Chaudhry was `the murder of judiciary’ which the government must withdraw.