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The caravans of lawyers, political workers, civil society members and different organisations arrived in Sukkur from Karachi and Quetta.
The march that began on Monday will gradually swell in size and strength and after passing through different cities, including Multan and Lahore, will culminate in a mammoth rally in Rawalpindi and long sit-in at Islamabad on Thursday or Friday to press for the restoration of the deposed judges of the superior courts to the pre-Nov 3, 2007 position, and independence of the judiciary as enshrined in the 1973 Constitution.
A lawyers' caravan set out from the mausoleum of the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on Monday morning. Besides the legal community, the participants included activists of Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-N, Tehrik-e-Insaf, Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party and members of the civil society, who hoisted colourful flags of their parties and organisations.
The lawyers' caravan, joined by workers of different political parties and activists of civil society organisations, left Quetta by road for Sukkur. Senior lawyers of the Supreme Court from Balochistan, Ali Ahmed Kurd, President Balochistan Bar Association Baz Muhammad Kakar and President Balochistan High Court Bar Association Hadi Shakeel and other senior leaders led the cavalcade.
Senior politicians including President National Party Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, leader of Pushtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and former MPA Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, provincial Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi, General Secretary Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Ayaz Sawati advocate, representatives of different trade unions and civil society organizations saw the lawyers off at the district courts.
Participants of the rally on the occasion chanted full-throated slogans in favour of restoration of the independent judiciary and reinstatement of the deposed judges including the chief justice.
The lawyers' caravan would pass through Mach, Bolan, Dhadhar, Sibi, Dera Allah Yar, Dera Murad Jamali before reaching Sukkur the same night to join their colleagues from other cities including Karachi there on way to Islamabad.
The rally, to be led by Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan thereon would leave Multan for Lahore at 9am on June 11. The deposed chief justice would address them when they reach Lahore and the march would leave for Islamabad at 9am on June 12.
Processions from various cities and towns would join the marchers along the route. Long march convoys from Muzaffarabad, Abbotabad and Peshawar would leave for the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Thursday to join the main processions from Lahore at Rawalpindi before marching on the Parliament House in Islamabad.
