LAHORE, Dec 25: Both lawyers’ leaders and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz believe that another long march will not add to the woes the country is facing because of a confusing conflict with India and the ongoing ‘war on terror’ at home.

They say they stand for a fair chance of drumming up a cross-section of the society in another long march and making the government realise the importance of an independent judiciary. Their optimism is in contrast with the suspicions the participants of the last long march had after witnessing the protest melt away without crystallising in the form of a sit-in.

Lawyers admit bringing together such an event once more may prove to be challenging when it comes to binding people together from across the country in Islamabad for a second long march on March 9 — followed by a sit-in on Constitution Avenue. But before lawyers set out on another remarkable journey, many believe, they need to put their house in order.

The task requires bridging differences among different groups of lawyers vying for more power within the bar in the upcoming elections for the Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Lahore Bar Association. Lawyers hold in Lahore a meeting of all bar representatives on Jan 27 to imbibe shades of opinion among the community and mull ways to ‘mobilise’ political parties, students, doctors and other groups.

Though the PML-N wants to actively engage itself in the protest against the government, it wants the lawyers lead it from the front and take a firm decision on a sit-in. “We don’t want to make it look like as if a political party is putting up the show. In the last long march the sit-in could not take place because the lawyers did not coordinate very well,” said PML-N’s Iqbal Jhagra.