ISLAMABAD, March 17: An emergency meeting of opposition parties on Saturday decided to actively participate in protest demonstrations with lawyers on March 19 in Karachi and on March 21 in Islamabad when Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will appear before the Supreme Judicial Council for the third time.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Pakistan Muslim League-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said the opposition parties had decided to fully support the lawyers community in their struggle for the independence of judiciary and protest rallies would be held at the provincial level.

Mr Haq said the decision to postpone the multi-party conference (MPC) in London had been left on party chief Nawaz Sharif.

He said the meeting was attended by leaders of all the major opposition parties, except the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP). He said PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim informed him at about 4pm that he was going to Hyderabad to attend a family function and someone from his party would represent the PPP in the meeting.Sources said that Malik Hakmin Khan of the PPP reached the PML-N Secretariat to attend the meeting but later left the venue after he was informed that the party had decided to boycott the meeting.

When contacted, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the party had not attended the meeting because it was not consulted prior to its convening. He said the PPP had already called a meeting on March 21 to discuss the ongoing judicial crisis, therefore, the party felt that there was no need to take part in it.

Those attended the meeting included Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Tehmina Daultana, Asfandyar Wali, Imran Khan, Hamid Gul, Sajid Mir and Anas Noorani.