LAHORE, April 18: Hundreds of lawyers and political activists rallied on The Mall on Wednesday as part of their series of protests against the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan.
This was the third peaceful rally in the city which saw lawyers more in number and much more enthusiastic than they were in the last gatherings. Political activists also showed up into hundreds against dozens in the previous rallies.
Holding party flags, banners and placards, around 1,000 political activists, a majority of them from the PPP, chanted slogans against President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
“Go Musharraf Go, Down with Musharraf, Our fight will continue till the removal of Musharraf” were some of the slogans the protesters raised. Other activists represented the MMA, the PML-N, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, the Awami National Party, the Labour Party Pakistan and the Khaksar Tehrik.
The lawyers’ bodies had planned the rally as part of countrywide protest on the hearing of the reference against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry before the Supreme Judicial Council in Islamabad.
The lawyers in the city and elsewhere in Punjab also boycotted court proceedings and set up hunger strike camps. Banners hung atop courts in the city were emblazoned with slogans in favour of the chief justice.
A rally of lawyers was taken out from the Aiwan-i-Adl which joined another rally at the GPO Chowk. The lawyers marched up to Faisal Chowk in front of the Punjab Assembly building.
Hundreds of riot policemen deployed outside the Lahore High Court and en route the rally did not intervene at any stage. The protesters stayed at Faisal Chowk for about 30 minutes. A PTI worker, who had chained himself for what he said as a symbol of slave nation, attracted the protesters by flagellating himself with chains.
Carrying out a mock funeral of Gen Musharraf, activists of the Khaksar Tehrik set it ablaze and some of the participants even kicked and punched it to express their anger.
ADDRESS: Speaking to the lawyers, the high court bar and Lahore bar association presidents reiterated their resolve to continue struggle not only for the reinstatement of the chief justice, but also for the removal of Gen Musharraf.
The high court bar president, Ahsan Bhoon said the lawyers had taken up a case of common people in Pakistan. They were in dire need of a relief, he said, urging them to unite against the regime of President Musharraf.
LBA president Syed Muhammad Shah said the community would go on strike and hold rallies on each hearing of “illegal and unconstitutional reference” against Justice Chaudhry.
TRAFFIC: An hour-long presence of the lawyers on The Mall affected the traffic on the road and its adjoining lanes.
The roads leading to The Mall from Queen’s Road, Shadman, Egerton Road and McLeod Road had been barricaded by the police which kept on diverting the traffic to other roads. This created long traffic jams.