Despite rounding up of hundreds of opposition activists and blocking of link roads, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry received unprecedented welcome during his 300-km-long, Islamabad - Lahore rally on Saturday.
Defying all security threats and warnings not to travel by GT Road, Justice Iftikhar left his residence at about 7.30 am for Lahore to address the Lahore High Court Bar Association.
Thousands of lawyers, political workers and citizens welcomed the defiant CJ when he reached Rawalpindi district court to lead the convoy. Despite hurdles, high handedness of the local administration and ransacking of offices of the opposition parties, thousands of people came on the road at Mandara, Gujjar Khan, Sohawa, Dina, Jhelum, Sarai Alamgir, Kharian, Lala Musa, Gujrat, Wazirabad, Gukkur, Gujranwala Cantt., Gujranwala, etc.
It was the hottest day in the upper Punjab region but the people stood up for hours to express their solidarity with the Chief Justice in his hour of trial and prayed for his success in the legal battle.
The gathering of the people in such a large number surprised many, as this region is the citadel of power of the present rulers of the Punjab, and traditionally its populace has been pro-establishment.
The rally covered 160-km-long distance between Rawalpindi and Gujrat in 12 hours where Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, his counsel Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, SCBA President Munir A. Malik briefly addressed the district bar association.
Justice Iftikhar thanked the legal fraternity for launching a struggle for supremacy of the Constitution and rule of the law in the country.
It may be added that there was such a unity among the 123 bar councils/associations of the province that despite pressures, not a single bar association opposed invitation to the Chief Justice to address the LHC Bar Association.
Representatives of the Sindh Bar Association and other provinces also participated in the rally and attended the LHC Bar Association function. There was such an unprecedented and spontaneous response of the people that live transmissions of private TV channels, Aaj, Geo news and ARY were blocked in Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawabshah and other cities of Sindh.