ISLAMABAD, April 17: The crowd protesting over the reference filed against the country’s highest adjudicator outside the Supreme Court may grow bigger following an appeal of the Pakistan Bar Council to political parties and professional organisations to join their agitation when Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry makes his fifth appearance before the Supreme Judicial Council on Wednesday.

The appearance of the chief justice before the SJC might coincide with the filing of three more petitions before the Supreme Court, one by Justice Chaudhry himself and the other by the Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association, one of the counsel defending the chief justice in the reference told Dawn. The petitions will mainly object to the maintainability of the reference against Justice Chaudhry, composition of the SJC, ‘suspension’ of the chief justice and a request for open proceedings in the reference.

Already, a bench of the apex court is seized with five petitions on the same issues, including the contention that under Article 209 of the Constitution no reference can be filed against a sitting chief justice.

On Sunday last, the PBC had decided to file one such petition and had also appealed to political parties and professional bodies, including the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Pakistan Medical Association, Pakistan Engineering Council and associations of chartered accountants and architects to support the lawyers’ struggle for independence of judiciary.

The size of the demonstrations is increasing on each day of hearing of the reference against the chief justice and so is the outrage of protestors expressing indignation to President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s decision of rendering the chief justice ineffective and forwarding the reference of misconduct against him before the council.

Ironically, the Constitution Avenue has become a preferred venue of different organisations to demand restoration of the 1973 Constitution and to vent their anger against injustices made to them.

Political parties of different shades have already announced to take out processions against the president and the government as a mark of protest against what they call an assault on the independence of judiciary.

The PBC is determined to continue observing a one-hour strike daily by lawyers while court proceedings are boycotted completely on days of the hearing of reference.

Lawyers will also organise processions and rallies in bar associations and outside the Supreme Court.

The defence counsel has closed its arguments on the question of bias against three judges of a five-member council on the last meeting of the SJC.

Specific allegations of bias were levelled by the respondent (chief justice) when he had appeared for the first time before the council to raise preliminary legal objections by questioning the presence of three judges in the council.

The chief justice had questioned the presence of the Lahore High Court chief justice in the council on the ground that more than one reference of misconduct was pending against him before the SJC. Besides, according to him, the high court chief justice had developed hostilities against him for not accepting his recommendation of advocates and judicial officers for elevation as judge of the high court. Likewise, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar was facing a reference in the SJC regarding financial misappropriation in the Shah Latif Bhatai University, Khairpur, he had alleged.

The defence team comprises Aitzaz Ahsan, PBC vice-chairman Ali Ahmad Kurd, Hamid Khan, Qazi Mohammad Anwar, Munir A. Malik and Tariq Mehmood.

The prosecution side comprises Waseem Sajjad, Dr Khalid Ranjha, Raja Abdul Rehman, Arif Chaudhry and Amanullah Kanrani. Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan appeared on a notice by the SJC.