Deposed Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will address all bars in the country by telephone on March 13.
Lahore, Mar.9 : Deposed Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will address all bars in the country by telephone on March 13.
Punjab Bar Council vice-chairman Mohammad Aslam Sindhu, Supreme Court Bar Association vice-president Ghulam Nabi Bhatti, Lahore High Court Bar Association secretary Rana Asadullah Khan, Lahore Bar Association president Manzoor Qadir and SCBA media coordinator Mohammad Azhar Siddiqui made this announcement.
Sindhu said SCBA president Aitzaz Ahsan would address all bars on March 10, while Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry would address all bars from his residence in Islamabad.
He also said that lawyers would hold rallies and meetings to condemn the actions taken on November 3 last year and boycott courts throughout next week. They would hoist black flags on their homes, offices and bar rooms and the general public, including traders, students, members of civil society and professionals, would join them.
The bar leaders said independence of the judiciary was the slogan of every Pakistani as they felt that the country could not be put on the track of real democracy and their problems would not be solved without a neutral and impartial institution to keep a check on people in power.
Meanwhile in Islamabad, police on Saturday restrained Ahsan and other bar members from entering the Supreme Court (SC) building to hold an Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) meeting. Reporters were also denied entry to the court.
The SCBA executive body meeting was then held on the road outside the apex court premises.
Ahsan later addressed a press conference at the Supreme Court gate, and heavily criticising the authorities for barring the lawyers from entering the court. He said the meeting was to discuss SCBA's financial matters. He said that the judges sacked under the Provisional Constitutional Order on November 3 should be restored.
The Supreme Court building management had locked the main gate where the police were deployed, he claimed.
He alleged that the government was bent upon sabotaging the peaceful movement launched by the legal fraternity but they would continue their struggle till the restoration of the deposed judges.
Chaudhry Aitzaz said that detaining the deposed judges and members of their families, President Musharraf had committed a "heinous crime" for which there was a stern punishment.
ANI