Lawyers of southern Punjab on Monday observed the Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the reinstatement of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
It was the third consecutive day of celebrations which was announced by the National Action Committee of lawyers representing the Pakistan Bar Council, the Supreme Court Bar Association, all provincial bar councils, high court bar associations from all over Pakistan and the district bar associations of provincial and capital headquarters.
Special functions were held in High Court Bar Multan, Bahawalpur, District bars of Multan, and twelve other districts of southern Punjab to observe the Thanksgiving Day. They offered special prayer (Sajdah-i-Shukr) and also distributed sweetmeat among the lawyers. In Multan President of High Court Bar Habib-ullah Shakir, General Secretary, Rao Naveed Akhtar, Nafees Ahmed Ansari, MPA, Ex-Senator Malik Rafiq Rajwana, Aftab Pervez, Malik Haider Usman, and other said, "We demand that an interim government of national consensus be formed forthwith to hold free, fair and transparent elections under an independent election commission acceptable to all the major political parties.
They paid tribute to the judges of the Supreme Court and all judicial officers who resigned in protest against the judicial reference against CJP. They vowed to continue their struggle for the revival of the 1973 Constitution, restoration of true parliamentary democracy, independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, and provincial autonomy. For this struggle, though, it was decided that lawyers' conventions would be held at provincial and divisional headquarters throughout Pakistan.
"We are confident that the historic judgement delivered on Monday will usher in a new era of establishing the supremacy of the rule of law and principles of an independent judiciary. It should serve as eye opener for usurpers of state powers. We have promised the people of Pakistan that we will never let them down and we stand by our commitment. We assure them that the legal fraternity remains vibrant and shall continue its struggle relentlessly for the establishment of civilian supremacy," lawyers said.