ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: The government has decided to shift the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to Quetta or Murree to remove him from the picture because his presence is a constant headache for the administration, sources told Dawn.

The decision was taken as his occasionally press statements boost the morale of lawyers and gave new life to their struggle against the imposition of emergency and targeting of judiciary. Besides he also succeeded in conveying his messages to lawyers’ community and citizens of Pakistan.

The main reason for shifting of Mr Chaudhry was his last one-minute address to the lawyers on telephone from his besieged house on Tuesday. In the address, he urged the nation to launch a struggle for the restoration of the constitution, which he said, had been ripped to shreds.

Before his cellphone was jammed, he said the time for sacrifices had come, hoping that the day would come when there would be supremacy of the constitution without any dictatorship.

The sources said the sacked chief justice was informed on Friday that he would be shifted to Quetta in next few days, even if he resisted the move.

The sources said he was likely to be shifted in next two- three days.

Later, the depressed judge succeeded in informing his well- wishes about his shifting orders.

They quoted Justice Chaudhry as saying that: “I can sacrifice and go to any extent for the country, I will stand with the lawyers and their struggle and the people of this country for a truly democratic society under the rule of law and supremacy of constitution.”

His seven-year-old son Balaj, a special child, is sick for the last three days and needs medical attention.

A doctor of the Judicial Colony is providing medical treatment to the judges under house arrest and their families.

A senior police official claimed that the government allowed the sacked judges to offer Friday prayers at a mosque in Sindh House, but no one came out of their residences.