October 02, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 19, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 1: Lawyers on Monday staged the biggest rally of the second phase of their movement so far to condemn what they called unprovoked assault on their colleagues and journalists in Islamabad on Saturday.

Following speeches containing scathing criticism of army, the lawyers left the Karachi Shuhada Hall of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) despite the president’s plea to restrict the rally to Regal Chowk.

When they showed up on The Mall, their colleagues from lower courts, in the form of a long procession, including female lawyers, were already marching towards the Punjab Assembly building.

Before they started out from Aiwan-i-Adl, a group of lawyers carrying cane sticks — a tool so far missing from their protest –- joined them in a clear reaction to the treatment meted out to their fellow professionals and journalists in Islamabad on Saturday. Banners, carrying anti-Muhsarraf slogans, and flags, signalling presence of political parties’ workers, fluttered above the protesters.

The presence, though thin, of the workers of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Jamat-i-Islami and Labour Party made conspicuous the absence of the PML-N and the PPP activist in a sharp contrast to their statements on blocking Gen Musharraf’s re-election.

In a passionate plea last month to the bar, Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, President of the PML-N, Punjab, had asked the lawyers to spearhead the drive against Musharraf regime with a promise of party support.

Passing through the heavily guarded road, the lawyers chanted such slogans against the general and the US that made many a policemen hide their smiles. Shutters of several shops were kept down in anticipation of a clash that must have seemed obvious because of a heavy police presence.

The lawyers staged a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly, where police had erected barricades to bar them from proceeding further towards the Governor’s House. LHCBA president Ahsan Bhoon and LBA head Syed Muhammad Shah addressed the protesters there.

Bhoon said Gen Musharraf would soon be shown the door and added the regime wanted to pacify the lawyers and media, which it would find impossible to do.

Shah said state terrorism would not be tolerated and demanded removal of those responsible for brutal action. He added the media would remain a part and parcel of the lawyers’ movement until Gen Musharraf was thrown out.

Earlier, addressing the LHCBA general house, Asma Jehangir, Chairman of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said police swooped on protesters without any provocation. She added the plainclothesmen had swarmed the Constitutional Avenue before the protesters gathered there.

She said they had stones in their pockets and a plan up their sleeves, which they executed in the form of naked aggression.

Asma said: “The government believed the lawyers’ movement had been broken but I would only agree to this proposition if Shaukat Aziz dared to step into any barroom across the country.”

She said the policemen were warning doctors and nurses against treating the injured lawyers. She said the government played up what happened to Farooq Sattar, and created an impression as if protesters were out to kill him. “Look at his size. I can make him lose consciousness in four slaps,” she argued against the impression.

She said turncoats like Shaukat Azia had come and gone but not the lawyers’ movement — which she termed crown of the country. She added the lawyers would now reply to the state aggression in the same coins.

“We must not lose senses in the heat of the moment,” said Mian Aftab Farrukh, a former judge, while addressing the house. He said during the Pakistan Movement under Quade-i-Azam, not a single drop of blood was shed.

Gen Musharraf, he said, had caused the greatest damage to the country by sowing acrimony between the people and the army of Pakistan. “We must not forget that Musharraf and a handful of his aides were behind the conspiracy,” he added.

Chaudhry Abdul Mateen advocate said Musharraf would follow the fate of Saddam Hussain for killing people in Waziristan and Karachi on May 12. He added the Americans should desist from backing Musharraf and perpetrating aggression against people of Pakistan.

He said the chief election commissioner was a man devoid of any honour — a fact evident from the changes he made to the election rules.

On the occasion, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists’ Secretary Hamid Nawaz said he differed with the proposition that a handful of generals, not the army, were keeping their hold sway over state of affairs. He added those who were psychologically in the habit of submission could never show independence.

Advocates Khurram Latif Khaosa, Azam Nazir Tarar and Anwarul Haq also spoke on the occasion.