June 19, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 18: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has justified termination of the lawyers’ long march without staging a sit-in and insisted that the purpose of the event was not to storm the Parliament House or the Supreme Court building but to register a protest against delay in the restoration of pre-Nov 2 judiciary.

Talking to media personnel here at his Islamabad residence on Wednesday, Mr Ahsan said: “One signal from me would have made the parliament building a heap of rubble but not a single glass was broken or any untoward incident was reported during the march attended by all sections of society from across Pakistan.”

The march had improved the image of Pakistan because it was the biggest and most peaceful gathering in the history of Islamabad, he said, adding that over half a million people belonging to almost all walks of life could have destroyed the parliament house, but they remained peaceful, which was a great success.

The Wednesday’s press conference of Mr Ahsan was more of an attempt to dispel the impression that he had decided on his own to end the long march without consultation with other leaders. He explained that other leaders of the lawyers’ community were on board to end the march, even former presidents of SCBA, Muneer A. Malik and Tariq Mehmood, had also suggested against staging a sit-in.

On Monday, a member of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), Hamid Khan, had regretted that unexpected conclusion of the march without staging a sit-in was a setback to 15-month struggle and that members of the implementation committee of the march were under the impression that lawyers would prolong the protest at least for a day.

Mr Ahsan, however, said though he respected sentiments of the young participants of the march, yet the decision to end the event had been taken with a consensus.

He warned that lawyers would not show any flexibility if the senior judges were not reinstated and promised of staging more protests. “If restoration is further delayed, we will launch another massive march and stage a sit-in outside the parliament house,” he said, adding that people would love to stage a sit-in.

Mr Ahsan said not sending an invitation to PBC vice-chairman Haji Syed Rehman for attending the march was a mistake and he regretted it.