ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: The election of Ali Ahmed Kurd as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association has not only given a boost to the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of the deposed judges, but also brought back the political parties, whose interest had started waning, in action.

After the announcement of some of the leaders of All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) to continue to support the lawyers’ struggle, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif also gave a call to the party members and workers to fully participate in the protest rallies to be organized by lawyers throughout the country on November 3 on the first anniversary of the imposition of emergency and sacking of judges of the superior courts by former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.

A PML-N spokesman told Dawn that the party chief, Nawaz Sharif, had directed the party workers to express full solidarity with the lawyers, media and members of civil society for the cause of restoration of the deposed judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on the first anniversary of Gen (retd) Musharraf’s “unconstitutional, undemocratic and immoral action of proclaiming extra-constitutional state of emergency.”

Some of the component parties of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), including Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) have already announced to hold rallies on November 3 to mark the day when the judges were sacked by Gen (retd) Musharraf within one month of his controversial election from the assemblies. The former president not only sacked the judges of the superior courts, but also put curbs on media and some of the TV channels even remained off the air during the time the country remained under the state of emergency.

Meanwhile, several civil society organizations and journalists’ bodies have also announced to observe a protest day on Nov 3.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is also expected to address a gathering in Lahore. Party sources said that Mr Sharif had directed all provincial heads of the party to organise rallies in the provincial headquarters. The PML-N Lahore will organise a big rally from Nasir Bagh to the Lahore High Court building. The PML-N workers have also been directed to fully participate in the main procession of the lawyers from Rawalpindi district courts to the Supreme Court building in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, in a message to the party workers, Mr Sharif said the PML-N was firmly committed to the restoration of judiciary to the Nov 2, 2007 position as agreed in the Murree Declaration and recognized Iftikhar Chaudhry as the legitimate and constitutional chief justice of Pakistan.