Lawyers' weekly protest demanding judges and the judiciary re-installed on Thursday boycotted the courts and staged a rally on The Mall. Speakers at the Lahore High Court Bar general meeting said their protest aimed at reminding the promise of the Parliament and the PPP as well as the PML-N leadership.
They said the people gathered in Islamabad on June 14 last never intended to topple the government or take control of the parliament. SCBA President Aitzaz Ahsan, LHCBA Secretary Rana Asadullah Khan, Allah Bux Gondal, Raja Zulqurnain, Abdul Rashid Qureshi, Mian Naseer Ahmad, member, Pakistan Bar Council; Hafiz Abdul Rahman Ansari, and Rafiq Rajwana addressed the jam-packed House meeting, presided over the Bar President Anwar Kamal.
The lawyers march was highly successful and it was the acumen of the lawyers' leadership that they did not let the designs to defeat the march succeed.
Aitzaz said, PBC members are fearless and bold but some of them were such who did not have their hearts in the lawyers' movement and added, other bars also had authority to take their own decisions to sort out the problems in view of their circumstances and it was not necessary that every decision in this regard should come from the PBC.
He said the lawyers wanted the PBC to go with them in the movement. Aitzaz told the People's Lawyers Forum not to invite Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar to a convention in the city on July 18 and said, status of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as CJP was accepted even by the PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
He also asked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to make Justice Chaudhary functional in the office, as the prime minister had himself said no two CJPs can hold office in the country.
He said lawyers are under obligations to fulfil the commitment made by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto about restoration of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as CJP. Aitzaz said his Bar would suggest to the All Pakistan Representative Convention on July 19 to frame a fresh strategy for the lawyers' movement. He said the lawyers might be told to stage a two-hour sit-in on every Thursday at the level of the respective bar throughout the country to reinforce the movement.
As to the suggestion of lock-up of the court-rooms, as suggested by Joint Action Committee of the High Court Bar Associations, he said this measure may create problems for the lawyers. Aitzaz said no judge made dysfunctional through PCO on November 3 last, was ready to accept resumption of the job without restoration of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as CJP.
Bar Secretary Rana Asadullah said after long march, lawyers were more committed to the cause of judges' restoration, independence of judiciary and rule of law in the country and in future they would show more unanimity and force to achieve the objectives.
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