The lawyers' community observed complete boycott of the courts and took out rally at the Mall here on Thursday and demanded the restoration of pre- November 03 judiciary. The members of Lahore Bar Association (LBA) from Aiwan-i-Ald, joined their peers from the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LCBA) before the main gate of the Lahore High Court.
Activist of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Jamat-i-Islami and Jamiat-i-Ulema Pakistan also joined the protest, and chanting slogan against the President Pervez Musharraf. Representatives of the Concerned Citizens of Pakistan (CCP). They were holding placards, banners and poster, inscribed with slogans against the PCO judges and in favour of the deposed judges.
Addressing the participants, LHCBA president Anwar Kamal said the lawyers never discontinued their movement till the revival of the November 2 judiciary but had slowed it down because of the promises the political parties made.
Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) member, Hamid Khan said that the movement had entered into a decisive phase, where lawyers needed to use all their energies. He added the people were not with President Musharraf or Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar but with the lawyers and their movement.
LBA President, Manzoor Qadir said the political parties, which ignored the aspirations of the people, would be washed out when the tide of the popular sentiment rose high. He added all political parties must disassociate themselves from President Pervez Musharraf and join the movement for the restoration of the judges.
He said President Musharraf was clinging on to power because he knew his crimes would be punished under Article 6 of the constitution. He added the lawyers would neither accept any reduction in the tenure of the chief justice nor the constitutional package being.
Earlier, addressing the general house of the LHCBA, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said those who believed that President Musharraf could be removed from power gradually were wrong. "It cannot not be done through a homeopathic treatment but a major surgery," he added. He said it was not really hard to understand that there was only one chief justice in the country when one accepted in letter and spirit that all actions President Musharraf took on November 3 were unconstitutional and unlawful.