KARACHI, March 15: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Thursday, condemning the suspension of the chief justice and keeping him under detention in his house, termed it unconstitutional and demanded that he be restored in office immediately.

This was stated by an MMA delegation, comprising Dr Mairaj-ul-Huda Siddiqui, Niamatullah Khan, Mohammad Hussain Mehnati, Nasrullah Shajji and Yunus Barai, that called on the lawyers at the Karachi Bar Council’s protest camp set up at the City Courts.

They said that Gen Musharraf had attacked the judiciary as it was not following his dictates and the chief justice was giving decisions on cases such as the steel mills case and cases relating to disappeared people, which went against the government.

They said that Gen Musharraf wanted to get himself elected for a second time from the same assemblies and he felt that the chief justice might give a decision against him if the matter was referred to the supreme court, that was why he took the action against the chief justice.

They lauded the struggle being carried out by the lawyers, and the government was facing difficulties in getting lawyers to defend its side in the Supreme Judicial Council. They said that the bar councils were even suspending memberships of the lawyers who supported the government.

They also condemned the Sindh government which has registered a case against 200 lawyers who were demanding the restoration of the chief justice.