LAHORE, Aug 28: Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan has asked the government to restore the judges to their pre-emergency status or face heightened protest that will continue till the restoration of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Addressing the Lahore High Court Bar Association here on Thursday, he said the lawyers carried an important responsibility to save the country that was passing through the most critical phase of its history. He lamented that the deposed judges of the Sindh High Court accepted the government’s offer of a fresh appointment contrary to the movement for the restoration of all the judges deposed on Nov 3.

Mr Ahsan said: “In long-drawn movements, some people give in and some simply get tired, but that does not mean that the core objective is ignored.” He said the eight deposed judges of the SHC rejoined their offices not because of Law Minsiter Farooq Naek’s efforts, but because of the hard work the lawyers had done for the independence of judiciary and rule of law. However, he added, the deposed judges by taking a fresh appointment admitted that their ouster on Nov 3 had been legitimate.

He said the PPP should remember words of the slain leader, Benazir Bhutto, who had pledged to hoist the national flag atop Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s residence. As soon as Mr Ahsan said “Dogar is not the chief justice of Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto”, the lawyers broke into slogans against the law minister and Attorney-General Sardar Latif Khosa.

He credited the lawyers’ movement with several successes and said “the final goal is yet to be achieved”. He said due to the lawyers’ movement, a 13-member bench restored Iftikhar Chaudhry, Musharraf took off his uniform, people rejected the King’s party through their vote, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari signed Bhurbon Declaration to restore the judges and a dictator left the presidency.

“If someone reneges on an agreement after signing it, we can’t throw stones at him,” he said while referring to the PPP co-chariman’s promise to restore the deposed judges after impeachment. He said the lawyers’ had demonstrated their regard for peaceful protest and warned that the movement would fizzle out the day it turned violent.

He said the sit-in the lawyers were staging across the country would yield “maximum effect with minimum effort” vis-a-vis restoration of the judges. The workers of the political parties, which had distanced themselves from the movement, still stood by the lawyers in their campaign for the rule of law and the independence of judiciary, he said.