OKARA/SAHIWAL, June 23: Seventeen hours after its departure from Lahore on Saturday morning, the Multan-bound caravan of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry reached Sahiwal after midnight on Sunday, covering only half journey.

At the time of filing this report, his motorcade comprising over 1,000 vehicles was inching towards the Sahiwal bar premises with a large number of lawyers, general public and political activists crowding the Deepalpur Road.

During his 165km journey, the chief justice received unprecedented welcome at each town along the GT Road.

Thousands of people welcomed his caravan on his arrival in Okara.

Lawyers came six kilometres outside Okara to welcome the chief justice and it took them four hours to cover this distance on their way back to the Okara District Bar Association where lawyers from Sindh, Quetta and Attock bars also among a large audience.

In his two-minute address, the chief justice thanked lawyers who had come from all parts of the country to welcome him. The Okara bar conferred life membership on the chief justice. There are 23 judges currently working in the Okara district, but no one of them attended the reception.

When the CJP’s procession reached Pattoki, lawyers lay in front of his vehicle and said that they would not clear the road unless the Justice Chaudhry addressed them. Sitting in his vehicle mobbed by a large number of people, he made a brief address through a mega phone.

Earlier, the chief justice left Lahore with hundreds of lawyers.