LAHORE, March 9: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has expressed the hope that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif will fulfil their promise to reinstate the deposed judges within 30 days after the formation of the new government.

Talking to reporters after meeting the Supreme Court’s deposed judge Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday at his residence here on Sunday, Mr Ahsan said people would start counting days for restoration of the judiciary and lawyers would continue their movement.

Earlier, addressing a press conference after hoisting a black flag at the office of the Punjab Bar Council to mark the beginning of the ‘black flag week,’ he said parliament would not be able to complete its five-year term if it set aside the reinstatement of the deposed judges. He said if the parliament did not restore the judges the lawyers would be forced to tell it that it needed a strong and independent judiciary to complete its tenure. He said a parliament built on the debris of the judiciary was destined to be weak and subservient.

He said the lawyers’ movement was aimed at strengthening national institutions, including parliament and the judiciary.

He said that only an independent and strong judiciary could guard parliament’s interests and serve as a bulwark against conspiracies.

He said that a judiciary aligned with President Pervez Musharraf could not hand down an independent decision.

He said the proponents of the theory that the illegal steps taken on Nov 3 last year could not be undone without a two-thirds majority in parliament were according legality to the actions taken by Gen (retd) Musharraf. That would mean that tomorrow another armyman would step in, suspend the Constitution, detain 100 judges instead of 60, arrest parliamentarians and tell the nation to go to parliament for a solution, he said.

Mr Ahsan accused the president of committing an offence by suspending and amending the Constitution and deposing and arresting 60 judges.

He said that on March 9 last year, the deposed chief justice was detained for four days but after the imposition of emergency he had been in illegal confinement for four months. “Not only the chief justice but his children also are incarcerated like prisoners. What wrong have Ifra, Palwasha and Bilal done?” he asked.

He said the chief justice’s home had been turned into a private jail.

In the judges’ colony in Islamabad, Justice Sardar Raza Khan, Justice Shakirullah Jan and Justice Nasirul Mulk were detained and in Lahore, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Falak Sher, Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jillani and Justice Ijaz Chaudhry were confined in their homes, he said.

He criticised the interior minister for stating the deposed chief justice had not been detained and that his official residence was to be vacated. Mr Ahsan said even a retired judge was allowed to keep the official residence for six months without any charges and was required to pay Rs 65,000 as rent in case he wanted to stay further.

“In this case we are talking about the chief justice of Pakistan. He is not deposed, he is the chief justice of Pakistan.”

He accused Gen (retd) Musharraf of keeping the chief justice confined in order to force him to resign. “Chief Justice Iftikhar will not resign,” Mr Ahsan said.