February 01, 2008	Friday	Muharram 22, 1429

LAHORE, Jan 31: Several hundred lawyers, along with people from various other callings, marched on The Mall on Thursday and demanded restoration of the deposed judges which was marked as the Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Day.

Divided over the demand of a complete boycott of the proceedings before the judges, sworn-in under the Provisional Constitution Order, the lawyers, however, united in seeking restoration of the judges made to leave their offices unconstitutionally.

The Lahore Bar Association, which brought hundreds of lawyers under its banner from the Aiwan-i-Adl, joined the rally taken out from the premises of the Lahore High Court Bar Association. Workers of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, the Jamaat-i-Islami, the Awami National Party and the Khaksar Tehrik, accompanying the LBA, held aloft party flags and shouted their demand for President Musharraf’s exit.

Representatives of the Concerned Citizens of Pakistan, the Women Action Forum and the Pakistan Medical Association also participated in the protest march that converged in front of the Punjab Assembly’s building. Some protesters set fire to banners of PML-Q candidates while the rest ringed the bar representatives who made speeches on the spot.

Pakistan Bar Council member Hamid Khan asked the participants to ensure their presence in the car-rally which would leave for Islamabad on Feb 9 to remove all restrictions imposed on Justice Chaudhry. He said if the political parties and civil society joined forces with lawyers, Musharraf would not stay much longer.

LBA President Manzoor Qadir said the strength of the rally proved wrong the critics who said the movement for the restoration of the deposed judiciary had waned.

The protesters then came back to the premises of the LHCBA and chanted their favourite one-liner: ‘Go Musharraf go’.

Earlier, LHCBA President Ahsan Bhoon said the lawyers must keep in mind practicalities while making demands for a complete boycott of the judges who took oath under the PCO. Bhoon had been talking about the PBC’s decision of restricting the boycott to every Thursday instead of every day.

The PBC’s decision had churned out a lot of controversy among the lawyers for some seek a complete boycott of the PCO-judges while the rest favour keeping it to a day in a week.

“What good would the call for a complete boycott do when we would not be able to abide by it?” Bhoon asked. The lawyers should not make a demand which they would not be able to follow due to economic constraints, he said.

“I don’t want to mention anyone’s name but even today our friends appear before judges,” Bhoon referred to the partial boycott of the court proceedings at the Lahore High Court in violation of the PBC’s ban on appearing before judges on Thursdays.

Speaking at the meeting, former LHCBA president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari said had he been the sitting bar president, he would have checked each court to find out the lawyers appearing before the PCO judges. “I am saddened by the fact that our peers still appear before these PCO judges,” he added.

Advocate Ahsan Wyne said the need of the hour was to forge unity instead of accusing each other of jeopardising the movement, he said. He added the PBC, which was to decide on the boycott issue on Feb 2, should ensure a complete boycott. —Reporter