January 18, 2008	Friday	Muharram 08, 1429

LAHORE, Jan 17: Over 1,000 black-jacketed lawyers braced freezing rain on The Mall on Thursday and marched from Aiwan-i-Adl to the Punjab Assembly hall as part of their campaign for the reinstatement of judges. Their other demand is President Pervez Musharraf’s ouster from Presidency. The familiar presence of heavy contingents of police along the rally was missing, perhaps because of suicide bombers targeting policemen.

The Lahore Bar Association (LBA), which took out the rally from Aiwan-i-Adl, led by its new office-bearers, dominated the demonstration, which included lawyers from the Lahore High Court Bar Association.

On Wednesday, the LHCBA secretary said they would prefer holding a peaceful protest outside the high court instead of taking out a rally. The general house in its meeting on Thursday, however, decided to take out a rally.

The atmosphere in the general house meeting of the LBA lacked enthusiasm peculiar to the meetings under the former cabinet. Even though the meeting reverberated with anti-Musharraf chants, the frequency and vigour of the chants lacked its usual momentum known to such lawyers meetings.

As the group emerged from the meeting hall, it snowballed into a rally.

Lawyers held banners, placards and posters carrying slogans against President Musharraf and picture of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Lawyers also pulled down election banners of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q tied to the lampposts in the middle of the road.

The noticeable thing in the rally was the absence of police, usually manning roads outside the Lahore High Court and Aiwan-i-Adl. Policemen riding motorbikes and plainclothes officials standing along the road were spotted.

When the rally reached the main gate of the LHC, lawyers from the LHCBA joined in and marched to the Punjab Assembly.

By the time, it drizzled and some lawyers took cover under the trees outside the assembly hall while the rest gathered on the road and chanted slogans in the favour of the deposed chief justice.

Addressing the rally, Hamid Khan asked lawyers to converge in Islamabad on Feb 9 outside the residence of Justice Chaudhry. He said every lawyer was a soldier of the chief justice and would not rest until his restoration.

He said lawyers were united and would take out rallies on every Thursday.

Later, all lawyers walked back to their courts.

LBA: Addressing the LBA meeting, LBA president Manzoor Qadir praised the former cabinet, which, he said, had created a better image of Pakistani lawyers in the world through their campaign. He said the Musharraf regime was like a cancer for the country, which lawyers would soon obliterate.

“If we can force him to give up his uniform, we can also make him go away,” he added.

He lamented the lack of participation of political parties in protests against the regime. “We are not candidates for any ministry. We want political parties to join us and free the country from the clutches of dictatorship,” he said.

In its general house meeting, the LHCBA adapted resolutions demanding the ouster of President Musharraf, formation of a national government and a neutral Election Commission for transparent election.

Besides Hamid Khan, Khurram Latif Khosa, Allah Bux Gondal, Abdul Rashid Qureshi, Mian Hanif Tahir and Muhammad Anwar Ghumman addressed the house.

They said the lawyers did not recognise the judges appointed under the Provisional Constitution Order. They said restricting boycott to Thursdays, approved by the Joint Action Committee, should not be taken as a weakness.

LHCBA Secretary Sarfraz Cheema said the bar had decided to launch an awareness campaign among the public regarding the importance of the judiciary.

He said lawyers’ committees would be set up to spread this message through booklets and other printed material. He condemned the government for disconnecting water supply to the residence of Justice Chaudhry.

Bar vice president Firdous Butt said lawyers’ spirits were high even in the face of suicide bombers in their processions. Blaming the government for its failure to protect citizens, she said the government was creating panic in society by implicating Baitullah Mahsood in terrorist acts in the city.

Bhoon said the Pakistan Bar Council’s decision to cut down the period of protest to one day a week and one hour a day boycott has been taken keeping in view the hardships being faced by the litigant public.