August 31, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 28, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has asked the deposed judges, who have taken a fresh oath, to be thankful to lawyers for launching a movement, otherwise history would have forgotten them.

“It is only because of the lawyers’ movement that reinstatement of deposed judges became an issue, otherwise nobody would have remembered them,” Mr Ahsan told a press conference after attending a meeting of the SCBA executive committee.

When his attention was drawn towards complaints by some deposed judges that the leadership of lawyers was taking decisions without consulting them, Mr Ahsan said there could be “many excuses but it is a fact that the judges issue remained alive because of lawyers”.

“I am not indulging in any kind of character assassination, but there was no reason to consult them since, with a few exceptions, they did not attend our protest gatherings,” he said, adding it was the lawyers who braved the wrath of administration.

Mr Ahsan rejected allegations that lawyers had disfigured a beaming visage of PPP Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari during the Aug 28 sit-in, saying that it was beyond the dignity of the legal fraternity to stoop so low.

He announced that no sit-in or any protest would be staged during Ramazan, except a rally in front of the parliament house on Sept 4.

He said the legal fraternity did not accept the government’s stand that Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar was a constitutional chief justice.