ISLAMABAD, March 21: “Suspended” Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will go on a countrywide lecture circuit from Wednesday next. “To test government’s claim that the non-functional chief justice is a free man, Justice Chaudhry has accepted the invitation to address the Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association on March 28 and the Peshawar High Court Bar Association on March 30,” announced Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik here on Wednesday.

Mr Malik, surrounded by lawyers from Islamabad and Rawalpindi bar associations, told the press that they would try to encourage the chief justice to address at every nook and corner of the country but clarified at the same time that their struggle was apolitical.

Before announcing their future line of action, defence lawyers Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistan Bar Council Ali vice-chairman Ahmad Kurd, Mr Malik, PBC executive committee chairman Qazi Anwar, Hamid Khan and Tariq Mehmood held a detailed meeting with Justice Chaudhry at his residence.

The strategy seems to keep up the momentum of countrywide protests of lawyers.

Mr Malik had earlier expressed the apprehension that the postponement of the SJC meeting till April 3 on a request of Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan was meant to defuse the ongoing movement of lawyers.

The SJC was to meet today to take up preliminary objections raised by the “non-functional” chief justice to its composition, element of bias against him and his request for open proceedings.

The defence lawyers were also bitter over the SJC’s acceptance to the government’s request to defer the proceedings but ignoring a similar request by Aitzaz Ahsan, leading the defence team, to adjourn the proceedings till March 26.