LAHORE, May 24: Thousands of lawyers, political and rights activists rallied on The Mall in sweltering heat as part of their ongoing campaign against the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan.

The rally was part of an announcement made by the Lahore High Court Bar Association that they would assemble and protest on The Mall every Thursday till the CJP was reinstated and democracy restored.

The Pakistan Medical Association, the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Associations, the Punjab Teachers Association and the Punjab University Academic Staff Association joined the lawyers as did activists from almost all the opposition parties, including the PPP, the PML-N, the MMA, the PTI, the JUI-F, the Labour Party Pakistan, the Tehrik-i-Istaqlal and the Jamaat-i-Islami.

PTI chairman Imran Khan also took part in the protest for the first time in Lahore since the judicial crisis. HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir, too, showed up.

The lawyers boycotted court proceedings and attended hunger strike camps across Punjab.

The protesters chanted slogans against Musharraf and flaunted banners inscribed with slogans like: “We are with the truth” and the chief justice is only truth”. They also raised slogans against the MQM and demanded an immediate ban on all of its activities.

Dozens of passers-by also joined the lawyers and some of them showered rose petals on them. The protesters also tore apart some banners hung on the road in favour of the Punjab government and later set fire to them. At Faisal Chowk they staged a sit-in where leading lawyers and politicians spoke to the gathering.

Many workers of the PPP, led by provincial secretary-general Ghulam Abbas, pushed through the barricades the police had erected on the road, and they marched up to the Governor’s House. It was their venue for sit-in and condemnation of what they said the military and dictatorship.

The protesters dispersed after returning to the Lahore High Court peacefully.