ISLAMABAD, March 26: Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will visit Quetta on Monday and address the provincial bar in his home-town.

“The chief justice (deposed) has desired to visit his home-town and will be leaving for Quetta on March 31 by a 10.30 flight,” Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters outside Justice Iftikhar’s official residence here on Wednesday.

“We have conferred amongst ourselves as we wanted to draw an elaborate programme of his (Justice Iftikhar) address to different bar associations of the country, but Justice Iftikhar wanted to go to Quetta first where he will also address the Balochistan High Court Bar,” Barrister Ahsan said.

The plan was confirmed by former vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Ali Ahmed Kurd, former SCBA presidents Tariq Mehmood and Munir A. Malik and Justice Iftikhar himself.

“He (Justice Iftikhar) will go to the bar with all dignity and restraint possible of a judge,” Barrister Ahsan said, adding that the plan for visiting different bars was not aimed at pressurising the new government but to let it fulfil the promise made in the Bhurban declaration of restoring deposed judges in a month.

Tariq Mehmood later told Dawn that Justice Iftikhar was likely to stay in Quetta probably till April 3 to meet his relatives and other people and visit his ancestral graveyard.

Quetta was left out in last year’s whirlwind tour by Justice Iftikhar to different bar associations of the country.

“Since a petition of Justice Iftikhar against the presidential reference was being heard by a 13-member bench of the Supreme Court and his counsel were busy preparing for legal battle, it was difficult for us to arrange his address to the Balochistan bar,” Mr Mehmood added.

He declined to say if Justice Iftikhar would go to Sukkur from Quetta or return to Islamabad, but conceded that the first invitation had come from the Sukkur bar association.

Munir A. Malik said that Justice Iftikhar would address the bar and thank lawyers for their struggle for restoration of the judiciary.