May 09, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 21, 1428

QUETTA, May 8: National Party’s chief Dr Hayee Baloch has said that people had warmly welcomed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary during his visit to Sukkur, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Lahore, supported the lawyers’ campaign and rejected military rule and intelligence agencies’ interferences in political affairs.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he urged the PPP and PML-N leaders abroad to return to the country to contribute to the political struggle to rid the nation of autocratic rulers.

The NP leader asserted that people from Peshawar to Karachi had united for restoration of judiciary’s independence, parliament’s supremacy, rule of law, formation of an independent election commission to hold transparent polls and autonomy for the federating units.

Dr Hayee claimed that the Baloch people had been spearheading the democratic struggle against military dictatorships of Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Gen Musharraf, and said that the people of Balochistan would continue to cooperate with democratic political parties for the revival of constitutional order.

He said that the people of Balochistan would remain steadfast despite the government oppression.

The NP chief stressed the need for formation of an interim government to hold impartial and fair polls to hand the power over to elected public representatives for the resolution of issues and problems confronted by the masses.

LAWYERS FORUM: The Balochistan Lawyers’ Forum (BLF) was formed to highlight the lawyers’ problems and protect the judiciary’s respect.

A statement issued here said that an organising committee had been set up to run the forum’s affairs until its elections on June 30, following the completion of new memberships.

The statement, which termed the BLF to be a non-political body, said that it would strive to highlight the lawyers’ problems irrespective of their political affiliations, race, or religion.