May 07, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1429

HYDERABAD, May 6: United Human Rights Commission secretary general Rana Faizul Hassan announced on Tuesday that if Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry and other deposed judges were not restored by May 12, he would commit self-immolation outside the Supreme Court registry in Karachi on May 19.

Addressing his fellow activists who staged a demonstration outside the press club, Mr Hassan said that millions of Pakistanis wanted to see the deposed judges reinstated. Nawaz Sharif stood by Murree declaration but Asif Ali Zardari and a number of other leaders were trying to wriggle out of it, he said.

He called upon judges to bury the doctrine of necessity to remove the stigma they had brought upon themselves by being part of “judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and other (arbitrary) decisions”.

He claimed that he had tried to commit self-immolation outside the Supreme Court registry in Karachi on May 7 last year in protest against delay in the reinstatement of Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry but he was arrested and was facing trial.

He said that he knew suicide was a sin but insisted he would have to commit self-immolation on May 19 to open the eyes of the rulers if they did not restore deposed judges by May 12. He also demanded an end to humiliation meted out to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was a national hero.