QUETTA, March 30: Deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, is arriving here on Monday on a three-day visit, the first to his hometown in over a year.

The provincial government has made security arrangements for the procession of Justice Iftikhar in consultation with lawyers’ organisations. Hundreds of personnel of police and other law-enforcement agencies will be deployed along the route.

Supreme Court Bar Association president Chaudhry Atizaz Ahsan, Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, Hamid Khan, Munir A. Malik, Athar Minullah and other prominent lawyers will accompany Justice Iftikhar.

The Balochistan Bar Association, Balochistan High Court Bar Association, Balochistan Bar Council, the All Parties’ Democratic Movement, Awami National Party, traders’ organisations and members of the civil society have decided to accord a historic welcome to Justice Iftikhar.

BHCBA president Hadi Shakeel Ahmed, BBA chief Baz Mohammad Kakar, former vice-chairman of Pakistan Bar Council Ali Ahmed Kurd and other leaders of the community informed various parties, traders’ organisations and representatives of the civil society about the programme of the chief justice in the provincial capital.

Mr Kakar and Advocate Jamal Mandokhel said at a press conference here on Sunday that Justice Iftikhar would be taken from the airport in a procession to the BHC, where he would address a lawyers’ convention.

“A historic welcome for the chief justice will prove that the people of Balochistan want a free and independent judiciary in the country,” Mr Kakar said, adding that it would also be message for President Pervez Musharraf.

He urged the government to take adequate security measures because thousands of people would be at the airport.