NEW YORK, Nov 14: Over 700 lawyers demonstrated in front of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan on Tuesday to show support for lawyers and judges in Pakistan battling for the restoration of the rule of law.

Addressing the throng gathered there, Barry Kamins, president of the New York City Bar Association, said the rally was called “to embolden” the Pakistani lawyers and judges who have been “physically manning barricades and trying to face down an entire army.”

Kamins said: “It is shocking that so many lawyers and judges in Pakistan have been detained and imprisoned, and we are learning that at least some of these lawyers are being mistreated, perhaps tortured.”

Kathryn Madigan, president of the New York State Bar Association, called for lawyers to speak “with one voice in defence of the rule of law” in

Pakistan. And Catherine Christian, president of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, said Pakistani lawyers “are showing the world what it means to be a lawyer —fighting for liberty and an independent legal system.”

According to the lawyers’ association, the demonstration was sponsored by the city and state bars and the county lawyers and it was backed by the New York Women’s Bar Association, the Muslim Bar Association of New York, the New York Council of Defence Lawyers and the New York State Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers.

The deans of three area law schools — CUNY’s Michelle J. Anderson, Mary

Daly of St. John’s and Fordham’s William Treanor — attended the rally as did Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.

The American Bar Association has called for lawyers to march around the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., and attend a rally on the courthouse steps on Thursday.

Another demonstration of lawyers took place separately in front of Pakistan’s Consulate in New York.

A delegation consisting of the leaders of three groups, all of which sponsored the rally at the consulate, met Consul General Mohsin Razi and conveyed their strong support for the movement against the military government.