KARACHI, March 16: Speak-ers at a demo condemned General Musharraf for suspending Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and sought his reinstatement.

Speaking at the demo organised by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal near the Sindh High Court on Friday, they said the army ruler who came to power by violating the constitution had once again violated the constitution by making the chief justice ‘non-functional’ – a phrase never heard before.

They said the army rulers attacking the judiciary thought they would get away with it and people would never respond. They said the nation had forged unity on the issue and extended its full support to the chief justice and the legal fraternity that were fighting to restore the judicial supremacy in the country.

The speakers maintained that the action had been taken against the chief justice as the army rulers thought that superior judiciary would not certify their steps they intended to take in the near future. The chief justice had opposed various actions of the government and had exposed it in the steel mills privatization, disappearance of people and other cases.

They said the army rulers who had sent the elected prime minister in exile at gunpoint could no longer remain in power. They said the rulers were in fact weakening the foundation of the country for their short-sighted goals. The rulers were trying to bring the masses and the army into conflict, they said.

Holding placards and banners, the protesters chanted slogans for restoration of the chief justice and independence of judiciary. A number of lawyers also joined the protesters. The demonstrators chanted slogans of 'shame, shame' when MMA MPA Nasrullah Shajji told them that leaders of MMA and PML-N were manhandled and arrested during the protest in Islamabad.

The protesters also marched to the Supreme Court Karachi Bench amid tight security where they staged a sit-in. They were addressed among others by Dr Mairajul Huda, Maulana Umer Sadiq, Saleem Zia, Allama Nazir Taqvi of Islami Tehreek; Afzal Sardar, Qari Usman, Zubair Khan, Saeed Ghani, Waheed Khan, Aadil Khan, Basharat Mirza, Khan Mohammad Baloch, Yusuf Mustikhan, Laeeq Khan and Arshad Jadoon