December 11, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 30, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 10: The expression for an independent judiciary emerged loud and clear when lawyers, students and people from all walks of life rallied on The Mall after converging at the Lahore High Court to mark the World Human Rights Day as a ‘black day’ on Monday.

The second most voiced demand at the protest had been for the boycott of elections — a sore point for political parties still lacking consensus on restoration of the pre-emergency judiciary.

After the protesters managed to open up the locked main gate of the high court, they were allowed to march unhindered in a sharp contrast to what happened on November 5 when police had arrested hundreds of lawyers, after beating them up black and blue, for protesting against the imposition of emergency.

Police in anti-riot gear stood by and watched almost a thousand protesters, including lawyers, students, teachers, doctors, representatives of NGOs and workers of PML-N, PPP and Tehrik-e-Insaaf. They were holding placards, banners and posters inscribed with slogans in the favour of the judiciary and detained lawyers. A placard, showing picture of Supreme Court Bar Association’s former president in hospital, said: ‘Tortured and tormented but not silenced’.

Though the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) served as an umbrella for the various groups, the Lahore Bar Association infused its traditional vigour in the demonstration through its peculiar protest. Resistance poetry, loud slogans and charged speeches preceded the march, which split when a group of protesters started marching towards the Regal Chowk.

A group of lawyers, including advocate Mian Jamil Akhter, tore down PML-Q banners hung from lamp posts and set them on fire. The protesters broke into several groups — which not only clearly indicated their identity but their inclinations too.

Carrying party flags, around 100 PML-N activists, standing in the middle of road, chanted slogans in the favour of restoration of the judiciary while a group of women from All Pakistan Trade Union Federation and Working Women Organisation sought release of detained lawyers and political prisoners. Not far behind, were the students - mostly from Lahore University of Management Sciences - shouting at the top of their voice slogans against army’s role in politics and political parties’ participation in elections.

A group of lawyers gathered in front of the LHC gate, reserved for judges, chanted slogans against the chief justice of the Lahore High Court. Close by, the students, chanting slogans in the favour of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, switched to the ones against the LHC chief justice.

Stuck to their slogan for boycott of elections, a group of workers of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf carried party flags and banners inscribed with slogans to free the judiciary. The slogan that was virtually chanted incessantly had been the lawyers’ favourite one-liner: ‘Go Musharraf Go’.

After staging sit-in and keeping the road occupied for almost over an hour, some of the protesters dispersed while others including the students gathered inside the premises of the LHCBA and chanted slogans.

Talking to Dawn, veteran journalist and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Director I.A. Rehman said: “To keep people alive, it was absolutely a must for these people to gather and raise voice for their demands.”