LAHORE, August 7: Lawyers say the coalition partners have relegated the issue of the restoration of the deposed judges to secondary status by deciding to tread first the treacherous path to the impeachment of president.

“How much could one depend upon Maulana Fazlur Rehman?” said Pakistan Bar Council member Hamid Khan while talking about what he called the number game to impeach the president in the joint session of the Parliament. Mr Khan said when the establishment started playing its’ games, the government would find it hard to put together the number of parliamentarians needed to show the president the door.

He ruled out any flexibility in the August 14 deadline the lawyers had set for the government to restore the deposed judges and predicted a surge in their agitation. “We have number of options. We could decide to stage a sit-in in front of the parliament, block roads throughout the country and lock the courtrooms, besides resorting to civil disobedience,” he said.

He said the decision of the coalition partners would not divide lawyers on political lines because a majority of lawyers believed in building institutions and making the judiciary independent.

Supreme Court Bar Association former president Munir A Malik gives a yes-and-no reply to the same question. Mr Malik said the core objective – judges’ restoration -- would not change but the number of protesters out on the streets might go down in the wake of the agreement between the coalition partners.

“The PML-N participation in the lawyers’ movement had been substantive. When the chief justice went to Multan, a lot of PML-N workers came out to receive him,” he quoted an example.

He said the coalition should have decided to restore the deposed judges before setting out to impeach the president. That way, they would have had the support of an independent judiciary in case General Musharraf (retired) used 58 (2) b to dissolve the assembly, he added.

“Who would you prefer to go to? A Dogar court that cannot go against Musharraf or an independent Supreme Court of restored judges?” he asked.

For Mr Malik the picture has a bright side too. “Our stance against restoration of the deposed judges, through a constitutional package, had been vindicated — besides the joint communiqué reflects political will to resolve the judges’ issue,” he said.

Lahore High Court Bar Association president Anwar Kamal sees more gain than loss. “They have not only saved the coalition from crumbling but ensured that democracy will move on,” he said.