‘Long march’ to end with sit-in: Kurd

Published December 25, 2008

LAHORE, Dec 24: Supreme Court Bar Association President Ali Ahmad Kurd said on Wednesday the lawyers would ensure a sit-in be staged at the Constitution Avenue at the conclusion of their second long march on Islamabad on March 9.

He was addressing the launching ceremony of a book ‘Pakistan Lawyers Movement’ written by former president of SCBA Munir A Malik on the premises of the Lahore High Court Bar Association.

Mr Kurd recalled that the first long march was marred by a difference of opinion among the lawyers' leadership regarding staging a sit-in at the Islamabad venue. The sit-in, he said, was not held to avoid any untoward situation.

Mr Kurd praised Mr Malik for writing on lawyers' movement, stating its leadership was committed to the rule of law and supremacy of the constitution for which an independent judiciary was a must.

SCBA former president Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said the book reflected true sentiments of Munir A Malik and description of movement therein was so vivid and thorough that a reader feels himself landed in the actual happening.

He eulogised the courage and high spirits of the writer lawyer and said while in jail after November 3 action, attempts were made to damage Mr Malik’s kidneys.

Munir A Malik said on the occasion he was motivated to write on the movement when he was in jail in order to tell the people about the aims and objectives of the lawyers’ struggle and to highlight the need of an independent judiciary.

He said the lawyers' movement reflected the personality of Justice Chaudhary as a judge who felt for the common man and always held the Constitution supreme. He said the judges who did not take PCO oath command actual respect in the public and added lawyers would continue to struggle till revival of pre-November 3 judiciary.

Former SCBA president Hamid Khan, LHCBA president Anwar Kamal, Pakistan Judicial Crisis Management Council Chairman Shafqat Mahmood Chouhan, Pakistan Bar Council Member Hafiz Abdul Rahman Ansari and others also spoke on the occasion.