August 29, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 26, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Lawyers demanding the restoration of the deposed judges staged a sit-in at Zero Point here on Thursday but failed to live up to their threat of blockading the city.

In fact, if the police had not been diverting traffic from the scene to facilitate the protest, the 100 or so lawyers and their political and civil society supporters assembled there would have made no impression.

It looked odd that except for Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) none of the other parties – not even the PML-N and Jamaat-i-Islami – which had been vigorously participating in the lawyers’ movement showed up at the sit-in.

Nor were present members of the non-governmental organisations seen in the lawyers’ protests in the past. Some students returning home from the educational institutions in the nearby H-8 Sector, however, were spotted among the curious onlookers.

Some lawyers tore up a huge PPP poster at the site to vent their anger at Asif Ali Zardari, who appeared on the poster along with slain Benazir Bhutto, but advocate Athar Minallah claimed “they were not lawyers”.

Towards the end of the sit-in, the students tried to further shred the poster and the lawyers intervened to prevent them to do so. After an exchange of hot words between the two sides, the lawyers put the torn poster back at its place. Sources said senior police officers and district administration officials had met local leaders of the political parties and civil society activists the preceding day and persuaded them to stay away from Thursday's sit-in to keep peace in the city.

PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal, however, denied the claim to Dawn. “Parliamentary meetings and activities relating to the presidential elections kept us away. Otherwise, have we not been in the forefront of the lawyers’ struggle which is our own too?” he said.

Jamaat-i-Islami leader Liaquat Baloch also denied any meeting of his party with the police. “Our workers and leaders were busy with a tribal jirga and a convention and so could not participate in the lawyers’ sit-in,” he said.

COMMUTERS PROBLEM: The sit-ins staged by the lawyers’ community on busy roads in Rawalpindi on Thursday brought the vehicular movement to a standstill, leaving hundreds of motorists stranded for more than two hours.

A handful of lawyers blocked Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road at Moti Mahal intersection, Airport Road, Peshawar Road and Kutchery Chowk, disrupting the entire traffic flow.

Long columns of vehicles were seen on various roads for hours and the people underwent great inconvenience caused by the protesting lawyers, who are still haggling primarily over the reinstatement of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Traffic wardens were of the view that they had never witnessed such a long traffic jam in the city and regretted that only a few lawyers blocked the Murree Road at Marir Chowk.

Ambulances carrying patients were also stuck in the traffic jam as the there was no space to wade through the snarls.

Passengers also showed their anger at the blockage of roads by the lawyers, arguing that when there was no big show of strength then why a handful of lawyers had blocked the roads?

On Peshawar Road, which remains busy till midnight, a dozen of lawyers were seen sitting in the middle of the road, waving portraits of PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif and Justice Chaudhry.

There was no participation of the people in the sit-ins and the strength of lawyers, unlike the past, was also much lower as there were hardly 10-15 attorneys at a particular sit-in.

Some angry passengers also shouted at the lawyers near Kutchery Chowk for blocking the road, however, the traffic wardens assured the commuters that the roads would open soon.

APP ADDS: Lawyers’ community in the capital city also boycotted the Islamabad High Court (IHC) proceedings on Thursday. Hearings in all the cases before the single bench of Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam were adjourned.

ATTOCK: The lawyers here on Thursday in connection with the movement for the restoration of the deposed judges blocked the main GT Road at Hattian Chowk, suspending the traffic between Punjab and NWFP for two hours.

They burnt tyres on the road and chanted slogans against the government for what they called the delay in the reinstatement the judges, including Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The lawyers wearing black bands and holding black flags and banners took out a rally at the district bar led by president bar association Rana Afsar Ali Khan and proceeded to Katchery Chowk where they stage a sit-in, suspending the traffic on the Attock-Kamra Road.

Workers of political parties and civil society activists also joined the protest to express solidarity with the lawyers, who also observed complete boycott of the courts. Later, they blocked the GT Road.

Speaking on the occasion, the lawyers’ leaders vowed to continue their struggle for reinstatement of the sacked judges to the pre-November 3 position.

“It is unfortunate that after the resignation of Pervez Musharrf, the deposed judges have not been so far restored on one pretext or the other ignoring the public opinion,” the bar president said. He said various governments in the last 60 years had curtailed the independence of judiciary and that the deposed judges had first time resisted the “military dictator”.

He appealed to the civil society activists, traders and political workers to join the ongoing countrywide protests for the supremacy of law. The traffic resumed at about 2 pm after the lawyers dispersed peacefully. A large number of police personnel were deployed on the occasion to avoid any untoward incident. The lawyers also staged sit-ins and protest rallies in other parts of the district, besides boycotting the courts.

TAXILA: The lawyers staged a sit-in on GT Road near Taxila Chowk and suspended traffic for over one hour.

The lawyers holding banners and placards, inscribed with slogans demanding restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other judges, took out rally from court complex and after marching on Faisal Shaheed road, assembled at Taxila Chowk, throwing out of gear all types of vehicular traffic causing immense problems for commuters. Long queues of traffic were observed from Taxila to Sangjani and Taxila to Hassanabdal.