SUKKUR, April 14: The ‘suspended’ chief justice, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, on Saturday called for upholding supremacy of law and the constitution by ensuring that none of the three pillars of the state dominated the other two.

‘‘Abuse of power often happens in a society, where there is centralisation of all powers in one person or one institution,’’ Justice Iftikhar said in a speech on ‘the separation of powers and role of judiciary’.

He was addressing a big gathering of lawyers at the annual dinner of the Sindh High Court Bar Association’s Sukkur Chapter, and the Sukkur District Bar Association on the premises of the Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench.

Reading from a prepared text interspersed with quotations from western jurists, landmark verdicts and Quranic verses, a careful but confident Justice Iftikhar said that ‘being the chief justice of the country’, he would not speak about the reference against him. However, he added, it was his duty to speak about the existing system of justice in the country and to suggest reforms.

Justice Iftikhar spoke about some of his achievements as the chief justice — reducing the backlog of pending cases from 26,000 to 10,000 and taking suo motu action on several issues of public concern and fundamental rights.

He also recalled his eagerness to resolve the cases of the ‘missing persons’, implying that his actions in this regard had irritated the rulers.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Munir A. Malik, speaking before Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, called upon the judges to join the lawyers’ struggle for withdrawal of the reference and the reinstatement of the suspended chief justice.

Justice Iftikhar was given a rousing welcome at the airport by hundreds of emotionally charged lawyers from Sukkur and other districts of Sindh. Sindh High Court judges Zia Pervez and Nadim Azhar Siddiqi were also present at the airport.

He was taken to the Judges Lodges in the Barrage Colony at the head of a big motorcade. Political activists mobbed Justice Iftikhar at several points along the route. The motorcade covered a distance of four kilometres in over two hours.