LAHORE, Feb 6: Lawyers have decided to hold their long march on March 12, instead of March 9, out of respect for Eid Miladun Nabi.

The decision was taken on Friday by the steering committee of the national coordination committee of lawyers.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore High Court after the meeting, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, the committee’s chairman, said that a sit-in in Islamabad would start on March 16.

He was accompanied by president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Ali Ahmed Kurd, former SCBA presidents Hamid Khan and Munir A. Malik, chief of the Lahore High Court Bar Association Anwar Kamal and Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmood.

They said the steering committee had decided to organise the long march on the pattern of last year’s march, adding that lawyers and representatives of the civil society would start the march from Sindh and Balochistan on March 12, reaching Sukkur the same night.

Lawyers in Multan will set off the following day and reach Lahore on March 14 and arrive in Rawalpindi on March 15.

They said that a committee had been formed to contact all major political parties and invite them to participate in the march. Mr Kurd, however, kept quiet when asked if Pakistan People’s Party would also be invited. Terming the lawyers’ movement a campaign against injustice and discrimination, he appealed to all sections of the society to take part in the march.He urged provincial and district bar associations to launch a mobilisation campaign to ensure greater public participation and said foreigh bar associations would also be invited to support the lawyers’ cause.

He said a code of conduct would be prepared and it would be followed by every participant. Political parties would be requested to set up camps in the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad.

He said that the Supreme Court Bar Association unanimously supported the long march and had authorised him to take decisions about it. He said that lawyers were ready to face any eventuality and would return only after restoration of all deposed judges.