HYDERABAD, Oct 14: Office-bearers of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Hyderabad chapter, and District Bar Association have dismissed reports of rifts or grouping among lawyers of the city and said they will accord a rousing reception to Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on his visit to Hyderabad on Oct 18.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club on Tuesday, the president of the SBA’s Hyderabad chapter, Qazi Abdus Sattar, vice-president Abdur Rehman Shaikh and DBA general secretary Nisar Durrani said that except for a handful few who had accepted government posts, the lawyers were united on one platform.

Mr Sattar said that Justice Chaudhry, who is arriving in Hyderabad from Karachi on Oct 18, would be given a rousing welcome at the Hyderabad toll plaza and then he would be brought to the civil court in a procession where he was scheduled to address lawyers at 2pm. Lawyers from Karachi and Malir Bar would accompany Justice Chaudhry, he said.

To a question, he said that democracy had not been restored in its true sense as the people were still not getting justice. If there was no justice, there would be no democracy, he said.

The All-Party Democratic Movement leaders Saleem Tareen of the Pushtoonkhwah Milli Awami Party, Moulana Abdul Waheed Qureshi of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Shoukat Abro of the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party and Sultan Shaikh of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz were also present at the press conference.

Mr Qureshi said that the APDM was always with the lawyers and supported their struggle for the reinstatement of Justice Chaudhry and supremacy of judiciary.

He clarified that the APDM was not against any political party but it was struggling along with lawyers for the restoration of true democracy and supremacy of law and judiciary in the country.

He said that Justice Chaudhry had become a symbol of democracy and supremacy of judiciary and demanded that he should be reinstated. Without him, the judiciary would remain incomplete, the APDM leader said.