HYDERABAD, June 5: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) activists will accord a rousing reception to the lawyers and judges of Karachi who would pass the Hyderabad toll plaza on June 9 around 11am on their way to Multan.

PML-N leader Sahibzada Shabbir Hassan Ansari said this while addressing a press conference at the press club here on Thursday.

He said local party leaders were in contact with leaders of public opinion and civil society activists and they would be at the toll plaza to welcome the lawyers’ caravan on long march.

The PML-N activists will accompany the caravan up to Hatri, he said.

He said their party will continue to support lawyer’s struggle till the restoration of the deposed judges of superior judiciary, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and independence of judiciary.

He said that PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif had announced a two-point agenda which included reinstatement of the deposed judges and independence of judiciary, and the accountability of President Musharraf. Their party will not rest at peace unless these two objectives were achieved, he said.

He said that calling the judges of superior judiciary who had been illegally removed by an army dictator as “deposed judges” was absolutely uncalled for as they continued to be judges and even their salaries had also been released.

He said that President Musharraf should not be given a safe passage and demanded that he should be put in the dock before the same judges who had been removed by force.

He said: “The shabby treatment meted out to the national hero, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, registration of false plane hijacking case against Mr Sharif and the Kargil conflict are the crimes against Pakistan for which President Musharraf should be punished.”

Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshad Gulzar Kyani in his interview had exposed President Musharraf on the Kargil conflict, Mr Ansari said and demanded that, three separate judicial commissions should be formed to conduct inquiry into these matters.

President Musharraf had no right whatsoever to live in the army house, he said and demanded that, he should be expelled from there without delay.

Doctors’ demand: Doctors of Sindh, who were appointed on contract basis in 1995 and whose services were later regularised by the then Sindh chief minister, Ali Mohammad Mahar, have demanded of the government to count their contract period in service and pay them salaries of the intervening period of 14 months.

Speaking at a news conference, the Contract Doctors Forum leader, Dr Gulzar Jumani, and others said that 1,665 doctors were appointed by Syed Abdullah Shah’s government in 1995 under the rural health scheme on contract for one year which had been extended from time to time.

They said that during the tenure of Sindh governor Moin Hyder they worked for 14 months without any pay and then their services were terminated on January 23, 1999.

They said, later the next Sindh chief minister, Ali Mohammad Mahar, reinstated the dismissed contract doctors and regularised their services.

They, however, said that they had not been paid salaries for 14 months. They demanded that they should be paid salaries, their entire contract period should be included in their service, and they should be given promotion according to their seniority.

Loadshedding: A large number of small printing press owners staged a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Thursday against long hours of loadshedding.

They raised full throated slogans against the Hesco.

Speaking on the occasion, they said that due to the 20-hour loadshedding, their business had totally been destroyed. “The irony is,” they said “we are receiving same amount of bills from Hesco which we used to receive before loadshedding was started”.