LAHORE, March 4: The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) demanded on Tuesday that the new assembly impeach President Pervez Musharraf and revoke his powers to dissolve the National Assembly.

Addressing the house, advocate Ahsan Wyne said the Feb 18 election was a referendum against dictatorship. He said parliament should be given a deadline to restore the judges. If parliament failed to get the judges restored, lawyers would initiate movement against parliament after the deadline.

The house adapted a resolution demanding action against those who had tortured lawyers protesting in Islamabad on Monday. The LHCBA sought the release of all detained lawyers and sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The house asked political parties to put judges’ restoration on top priority. LHCBA President Anwar Kamal said lawyers were not divided over judges’ restoration. He said it was right that lawyers had been suffering for last year by not appearing in courts but their families and friends had stood by them. He said it was the duty of every lawyer to ensure boycott of courts following the call of the Pakistan Bar Council. He urged lawyers not to file urgent cases on Wednesday so that no lawyer could appear in courts on Thursday.

He said lawyers were fighting for the independence of institutions and not for individuals, so their struggle was not being supported by any political person.

He said as Musharraf himself had admitted that he removed judges illegally, the Supreme Court should have not legalised his illegal act. He said lawyers were not a political party, but they could help political parties restore deposed judges.