The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) has asked the government to try former president Pervez Musharraf for treason. The bar in its meeting passed a resolution unanimously and took out rally after general house meeting and stages sit-in before the Governor House.
Earlier, member bar Raja Ayub Rathore while addressing the bar members said the lawyers would "trample over the government, if Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was not restored immediately". Malik Munsi Awan said the lawyers would never accept the government's offer of talks and criticised the government for offering Chief Justice Chaudhry for senator's slot instead of allowing him to resume his office. PML-N MNA Naseer Ahmad Bhutta advocate said that lawyers are not divided and they stand united for the restoration of the deposed chief justice and the judges.
He said PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif stands with the lawyers' community for the restoration of the chief justice and would not hesitate in extending all the support they needed. The LHCBA secretary Rana Asadullah, said the Punjab government should withdraw the cases lodged against lawyers for protesting on November 5, after imposition of emergency last year.
Allah Buksh Gondal said the lawyers have defeated the government by getting Ali Ahmad Kurd elected as the president SCBA. He lashed out against the People's Lawyers Forum (PLF) and said how their party renege their promises over restoration of the deposed chief justice. PLF member Raja Zulqarnain said the PPP government was still towing Pervez Musharraf's policies without any change. He added that lawyers would never negotiate with President Asif Ali Zardari, who reneged on his written and verbal promised to restore Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Zulqarnain said, "Zardari is a liar and a protégé of the US." He asked political parties to join the lawyers' struggle for defeating the US designs of keeping Pakistan under its influence.
PML-N Lawyers Forum president Khwaja Mahmood Ahmad said Musharraf followed the US line and tried to distance the army from the people by bombing Wana, Waziristan and killing innocent people inside the Lal Masjid. Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairperson Asma Jehangir said the lawyers forced Musharraf to leave. She said the government was making a mockery of democracy by standing in the way of the establishment of the rule of law and the independence of judiciary. She said the country could not be run with judiciary, which took directions frequently on the phone.
Later, lawyers along with political workers, students, doctors and civil society activists took out protest rally at the Mall Road and gave sit-in before the Governor House and at Post Master General Chowk for two hours by wearing black armbands on their arms and holding black flags. The Governor's House sit-in was staged by the lawyers of the Lahore High Court Bar Association led by its secretary Rana Asaddullah Khan while the PMG Chowk sit-in was staged by the members of Lahore Bar Association (LBA). The LBA members, political workers of different parties and activists of other segments joined the LHCBA lawyers before the main gate of the Lahore High Court.
Lawyers hoisted black flags atop the bar buildings in the morning and wore black armbands to record their protest against the government for not restoring all the sacked judges. Activists of Jamat-e-Islami, Tehrik-e-Insaf, Insaf Students Federation, Jamiat Talaba Islam, Jamiat Ulema Islam, Tehrik-e-Khaksar, Pakhtoon Khawa Milli Awami Party, Students Action Committee, Shabab Milli, Muslim Students Federation, and concerned citizens of Pakistan joined the LHCBA lawyers at the GPO Chowk and marched towards Governor House.
Political activists were holding their party flags and were chanting slogans against the PPP government and its leadership. Prominent among the protesters were Ahsan Rasheed of TI, Liaquat Baloch, Fareed Paracha and Ameerul Azeem of JI, Mubeen Khan of PKMAP, Allama Hameed-ud-Din Ahmadal Mashraqi of TK, Hamid Zaman of CCP and PML-N MNA Naseer Ahmad Bhutta.
The Mall was decorated with PML-N flags and banners inscribed with the snaps of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and Mian Nawaz Sharif. Highly charged lawyers and other protesters first time chanted slogans against the PPP government in hard tone and were holding it responsible for not restoring the judges.
Rana Asadullah said that the protesters thronged there to remind the government of its repeated promises to restore all the sacked judges. He said the government of a dictator could not resist against the lawyers and added that the present government would have to face the same fate if it would not restore all the judges.