LAHORE, July 10: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has proposed blocking all major roads across the country for two hours after lawyers’ rally every Thursday.

Addressing the Lahore High Court Bar Association, he said the move would force the government to accept their demand for reinstatement of the deposed judges.

However, he said that an all Pakistan lawyers’ convention to be held on July 19 would take a decision about his proposal.

Mr Ahsan said that a judge had told him that the government was contacting the deposed judges to bring them back to their offices and a few of them were considering the offer.

He said: “I told him that any (deposed) judge accepting any offer without Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry would be considered a PCO judge.”

Mr Ahsan opposed a suggestion of the working committee of the high court bar associations to jam the judicial system throughout the country by sealing courtrooms.

“It’s not workable for the reason that PCO judges have been working for eight months and they have the backing of the administration.” Lawyers trying to do that might be hauled up and that would affect the movement, he added.

He said that members of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) were bold and fearless, but some of them did not have their heart in the lawyers’ movement. Beside, he said, the PBC did not represent all bars.

Mr Ahsan appealed to the People’s Lawyers Forum not to invite Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar to its convention in Lahore on July 18.

He said reminded the forum of Benazir Bhutto’s words that she herself would hoist the national flag at the residence of Justice Iftikhar. He said lawyers would fulfil the commitment Ms Bhutto had made to restore Justice Iftikhar.

The SCBA chief said that after restoration of the judges, lawyers would set out to change the nature and role of the state.

LHC Bar Association secretary Rana Asadullah Khan criticised some lawyers who were saying that the march long had failed. He said that the march had strengthened the lawyers’ commitment to the cause of judges’ restoration, independence of judiciary and rule of law.

Advocate Allah Bux Gondal, Raja Zulqurnain, Abdul Rashid Qureshi, Mian Naseer Ahmad, PBC member Hafiz Abdul Rahman Ansari and Rafiq Rajwana addressed the meeting which was presided over by LHCBA president Anwar Kamal.