SWABI, Nov 10: Changaiz Khan, provincial president of the Save Judiciary Movement and the general secretary of the District Swabi Bar Association, said on Saturday that the ongoing movement of lawyers was not only aimed at getting the state of emergency lifted but also at enabling the judiciary attain independence.

“We jumped into the arena to ensure the independence of the judiciary and the reinstatement of all judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry,” Mr Khan told Dawn by telephone.

Mr Khan went underground after the proclamation of the state of emergency but addressed the lawyers at Kernel Sher Chowk five days ago.

He ‘surfaced’ again on Friday and addressed the protesters when the law-enforcement agencies and the All Parties Democratic Movement leaders, workers and lawyers clashed here.

He told Dawn that the threat of arresting and the act of pushing lawyers and politicians behind bars could not stop them from their struggle for the independence of judiciary. “We are quite determined to achieve our objectives like the previous movement. The lawyers hailing from the NWFP have played a pivotal role and continue to render sacrifices in the second round of the movement against the government,” he said.

He castigated the government for using what he termed the “brute force” against the peaceful demonstrators of APDM and lawyers. The amendments which the government wanted to make in the Bar Council Act were unacceptable to lawyers, he declared. He termed it a conspiracy against lawyers and claimed that they would foil the government’s attempts to divide them.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that politicians arrested on Friday have been sent to the Haripur jail.