RAWALPINDI, Aug 25: The Rawalpindi Bar Association on Monday passed a resolution condemning the Pakistan Bar Council for ousting from its executive body some lawyers active in the campaign for restoration of deposed judges.

At the general body meeting of the association, the lawyers criticised the PBC for removing Sindh High Court Bar President Justice (retired) Rashid A. Rizvi as chairman of its executive body and Hamid Khan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Hafiz Ansari from different committees of the council. They said they were punished for being active in lawyers’ struggle for return of the sacked judges. They said the move had disappointed the lawyers.

The lawyers also prepared a plan for protests on August 28. They decided that with the help of civil society, students, workers of All-Pakistan Democratic Movement and traders, the lawyers would hold rallies at every busy intersection and jam the traffic except ambulances and student vehicles.

The lawyers demanded that Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari should restore all judges including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry before the presidential election. They also paid tributes to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif for supporting the lawyers’ movement.

Sardar Asmatullah, President Lahore High Court Bar Association, said without Justice Iftikhar there could be no independent judiciary in the country. He said since last year lawyers across the country had been offering sacrifices for the reinstatement of all judges and would not accept any formula that excludes Justice Iftikhar.

He said the deposed chief justice could have resigned and gained benefits much earlier but he denied them for the sake of rule of law and independence of judiciary. He said Zardari's statement that Justice Iftikhar has become ‘politicised’ was wrong because he had never shown partiality or given any political statement in the media or elsewhere since March 9, 2007.

Chaudhry Ikram, former vice-president Supreme Court Bar Association, said instead of paying attention to people's demands, the government had focused its attention on non-issues. He said despite several commitments the PPP government has failed to restore judges, which was the basic demand of public.