ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: After playing a camp follower to the lawyers’ movement for more than a year, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday finally climbed the platform of the lawyers who had been insisting that their movement was apolitical.

According to some participants of the lawyers’ convention in Rawalpindi, the PML-N leaders used their colleague and a retired judge Syed Ghaus Ali Shah as a shield to reach the stage set by the lawyers to observe ‘black day’ on the first anniversary of the emergency imposed by the then president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf to rid of now deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other independent judges. Lawyers managing the dais did not have the heart to stop the judge-turned-politician Ghaus Ali Shah.

But the lawyers’ spokesmen said the PML-N leaders came uninvited and the latter agreed. Both of them, however, were of the view that the politicians’ direct participation would not damage the cause of the lawyers’ movement.

PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Syed Ghaus Ali Shah managed to reach the stage at a time when deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was delivering the speech. Interestingly, Justice Iftikhar in his speech mentioned the name of Syed Ghaus Ali Shah three or four times.

Since launching of the lawyers’ movement in March, last year, the bar associations and district bars kept the politicians and political workers at bay and did not allow them to enter the premises of their public meetings.

All the political leaders, including Raja Zafarul Haq, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Imran Khan and Mehmood Khan Achakzai, were always seen speaking to their party workers at a distance from the main venue.

Therefore, the presence of the PML-N leaders on the stage which was being used by the lawyers surprised many political experts who believe that the direct participation of the politicians in the deposed chief justice’s functions might further weaken the lawyers’ ongoing movement for the restoration of the deposed judges.

Athar Minallah, a spokesman for Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, told Dawn that the PML-N leaders came to the convention without any invitation. However, he said, since they accompanied a former judge (Ghaus Ali Shah), they could not stop them. Moreover, he said, they came at a time when every one was attentively listening to the deposed chief justice.

Moreover, Raja Zafarul Haq is the oldest member of the Rawalpindi bar, Mr Minallah said while trying to justify the presence of the PML-N leaders on the stage. He further said the “politicians were not criminals” and there was no harm if they sat with the lawyers on stage. After all, he said, everyone knew that Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan also belonged to the PPP.

When contacted, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra of the PML-N admitted that they had not been invited by the lawyers and they took this decision on their own. He said they had gone there to show their commitment with the cause of the lawyers’ movement.

When asked whether this move would damage the movement, he said, one should face the reality. After all, everyone knows that the PML-N is supporting the lawyers’ movement for the past 18 months, he added.