ISLAMABAD, May 10: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will leave for Karachi by a Saturday morning flight to address the Sindh High Court Bar (SHCB). Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, the counsel representing the chief justice before the Supreme Judicial Council, told Dawn that there had been no change in the itinerary of the chief justice. He had a confirmed seat on a flight that would leave for Karachi at 10am.

The chief justice will address the SHCB in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court. Interestingly, a first-ever pro-Musharraf rally is being held on the day in Islamabad. It will be addressed by President Pervez Musharraf.

The Sindh government had on Wednesday requested the chief justice through a letter to the Supreme Court Registrar to postpone his planned visit to a new convenient date in the larger public interest. In the letter, the Sindh administration had expressed apprehensions about a terrorist attack on the chief justice.

Brushing aside possibility of any change in the plan, Tariq Mehmood said the SHCB gathering was a purely non-political event, therefore, there should be no cause of concern to any political party.

He said Supreme Court Bar Association President Munir A. Malik was coming to Islamabad on Friday to accompany the chief justice to Karachi despite threats to his life and the firing at his residence. CJ’s counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistan Bar Council’s former vice-chairman Ali Ahmed Kurd and many other lawyers have already booked their seats in the same flight. Those who could not get seats in the flight will fly to Karachi in the afternoon.

“To avoid any clash in Karachi where the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is also holding a rally, the chief justice will go straight to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum to salute the great leader who also happened to be a lawyer by profession,” Tariq Mehmood said.

After landing in Karachi, he added, the chief justice would not deliver any speech except at the Sindh High Court Bar.