HYDERABAD, June 9: Caravans of lawyers left Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Nawabshsh, Larkana and many other parts of the province for Sukkur on Monday to join the long march, which would make its first stop in Multan on Tuesday.

In Hyderabad, lawyers from different towns and districts gathered at the National Highway to welcome their colleagues who had arrived from Karachi. Former president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Munir A. Malik, and president of Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) Rasheed A. Razvi were leading them.

They were dancing to a specially written song of “jeeway jeeway Iftikhar, adliya ki azadi ho gi, judges hongey bahal aur vukala sabhi azad hon gey” (judiciary will be free, judges will be reinstated, lawyers will be free).

Justice (deposed) Ghulam Rabbani, activists of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chief Dr Qadir Magsi, Jamaat-i-Islami, Shabab-i-Milli, Anjuman Naujawanan-i-Islam, Sindh United Party, Mehran University Teachers Association and Sindh University Teachers Association saw off the caravan.

Justice (deposed) Ghulam Rabbani told journalists that he believed the struggle would lead to independence of judiciary. The present struggle did not have any precedence in the history of any part of the world, he remarked.

He said in response to Sindh chief minister’s statement that the government was digging its own grave by saying that long march was against it.

“Of course, the chief justice and independence of judiciary had been attacked in the present constitutional package,” said SHCBA President Rasheed A. Razvi in answer to a question. He said that an attempt had been made in the package to politicise judges’ appointment. “How would a chief justice deliver justice who is appointed by a commission led by federal law minister?” he asked.

Rizvi said that the package was silent on the Pakistan People’s Party’s slogan “Roti, Kapra aur Makan” as well as provincial autonomy. “The government must open its eyes. Slogans of ‘go Musharraf go’ can be substituted with something else,” he cautioned.

Former SCBA president Munir A. Malik said: “Today, no judge is ready to ask as to why wheat have been exported at $200 per ton and is being imported at $400 and at what prices our assets are being sold?” he said.

“We need to weaken Pervez Musharraf and make him irrelevant,” he said.

He was critical of the fact that Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum was still working and the government had so far not found an AG to replace him.

“Our demand is reinstatement of judges through executive order, executive order and executive order,” he stressed, taking note of the fact that the present constitutional package had assumed that judges had been dismissed.

STP chief Dr. Qadir Magsi said that even US legal experts had said that executive order was enough for reinstating judges. The reinstatement should not be linked with constitutional package because the deposed judges were the soul of 160 million people, he remarked.

In Larkana, lawyers left for Sukkur despite Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro’s advice not to participate in it. DBA chief Ahmed Shaikh said that the minister had asked not join the long march but he refused.

Hundreds of lawyers from all over Sindh and Balochistan have started arriving in Sukkur where their colleagues, members of civil society and political parties accorded them warm welcome.

Supreme Court Bar Association Vice-President Imdad Ali Awan told journalists that hurdles were being posed in the way of lawyers coming to Sukkur and difficulties were created in booking of hotels. Therefore they were staying at different places, he said.