BAHAWALPUR, July 25: Stage is set for a lawyers’ convention to be held here on Saturday (today) night to be presided over by deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Lawyers and political workers plan a warm welcome for the guest amid tight security arrangements around the Bahawalpur bench of Lahore High Court.

The convention, part of lawyers’ on-going movement for the reinstatement of the judges sacked under Nov 3 emergency, is expected to be largely participated by the office-bearers and delegations of the bar associations of the districts and tehsils of Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan and other areas of south Punjab.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan and other leaders in addition to several deposed judges are expected to attend the convention to be held at the sprawling lawns of the Bahawalpur bench.

According to Umair Mohsin, general secretary of the High Court Bar Association, deposed judges Sabihuddin (Karachi), Muhammad Tariq (Peshawar) and Khawaja Muhammad Sharif (Lahore) have shown their willingness to attend the convention.

Dawn learnt the Punjab government would extend complete protocol to the deposed chief justice during his visit.

The deposed judge and his entourage will be received at the River Sutlej bridge by the bar members and the activists of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-N and other parties.

Justice Chaudhry and others will be brought to the high court via busy Farid Gate and then Fowara Chowk in a procession of cars. The entire route from general bus stand to the high court has been decorated with banners and hoardings with the pictures of the deposed judge.

JI City Nazim Sheikh Abdul Aziz said his party would set up two welcome camps at the bridge and Fowara Chowk. The high court bar organised an earthen lamp- (diwa)-lit demonstration at Fowara Chowk on Thursday night. The participants raised slogans welcoming the deposed CJ and other members of his entourage. —Correspondent