ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday made a futile attempt to go to the residence of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in the Judges Colony.

He appeared to avoid a confrontation with police and did not try to go past the barriers erected by police around the colony.

Lawyers and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) had announced on Wednesday that they would try to meet the deposed chief justice.

The protesting lawyers and PML(N) activists remained peaceful and no untoward incident took place during the two-hour gathering. Some activists, however, set pictures of President Pervez Musharraf on fire.

Police had cordoned off the district and sessions’ court in the morning to prevent lawyers from gathering there.

PML(N) leaders, including information secretary Ahsan Iqbal, and around 150 activists had gathered near the Marriott Hotel to receive Mr Sharif.

Mr Sharif proceeded towards the colony and reached the main gate of the Balochistan House. When police stopped him from proceeding any further, he climbed over a concrete barricade and delivered a short speech.

He said Musharraf had destroyed the institutions of the country to prolong his illegal rule.

He said that in the past one dictator had ‘occupied’ the country and hanged an elected prime minister and another sent an elected prime minister into exile.

He said that other than Pakistan there was no place in the world where the chief justice of the Supreme Court had been detained in his house and warned the people that if they continued to accept the illegitimate rule of President Musharraf the country would slide further down, to the point of no return.

Earlier, about 50 lawyers of the Islamabad Bar Association appeared at the Ataturk Avenue in small groups and gathered in front of the NWFP House.

They marched towards the colony, chanting anti-Musharraf slogans.

More lawyers joined them when they reached the Balochistan House.

The president of the bar association in a speech condemned the ‘martial law’, role of army in politics, curbs on media and the sacking of judges of superior courts.