March 24, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1429

MIRPURKHAS, March 23: The deposed Supreme Court chief justice Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry has said that a silent revolution started in the country when the nation announced its verdict in Feb 18 general elections.

He said the lawyers’ struggle should continue as it had completed one year. He expressed the hope that it would achieve complete success.

Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry said the lawyers and the judiciary had asserted that now no dictator should rule the country and only the Constitution and law should be followed.

He was addressing on telephone lawyers present in the oath taking ceremony of the Mirpurkhas District Bar Association held here on Saturday on the premises of the district and sessions court.

He said the terminology of restoration of judges was wrong as they had already been restored, but not allowed to work.

To mark the occasion, the judges of the superior judiciary led by the former chief justice of Sindh High Court, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, supreme court judge Ghulam Rabbani and other judges and senior lawyers, including Muneer Malik, Rasheed Rizvi and Ali Ahmed Kurd, reached there in a judicial bus.

Mr Justice Iftikhar said: “Whenever a martial law was imposed in the country, no supreme court had the courage to give a verdict against it but we declared the November 3 Provisional Constitution Order null and void”.

“After November 3, 2007 we have been facing difficulties as judges of Supreme Court are detained,” he said and added that difficulties were the part of a movement and no one should take notice of any rumours.

Justice Choudhry paid tribute to 14 judges of the Sindh High Court who had refused to take oath under the PCO. He said that after Nov 3, all orders and acts of the Supreme Court were illegal and bore no legal status.

Speaking on the occasion, lawyers’ leader Ali Ahmed Kurd said that lawyers would not compromise and would not accept any formula under which Chief Justice Choudhry was not restored.

He warned that if any attempt was made to sabotage the Mari declaration, then the judicial bus would go to Islamabad.

“Now nobody could dare to impose martial law in the country,” he remarked.

The former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, Muneer A. Malik said that the lawyers’ movement had forced the President Pervez Musharraf to doff his uniform.

He said that lawyers had strengthened the federation and the judicial bus was strengthening the hands of democracy.

The deposed chief justice of Sindh High Court, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, said the independence of judiciary was not a problem of lawyers or a few judges only but of the whole nation, adding that the people had voiced concern in the recent general elections.

Mirpurkhas DBA president Salahuddin Panhwar, Karachi Bar Association president Mehmoodul Hassan, general secretary Naeem Qureshi and senior lawyer Rasheed A. Rizvi also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, the judicial bus was warmly welcomed at the Jamrao Bridge by the lawyers of Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot and Sanghar districts led by president DBA of Mirpurkhas.

Many civil society members, including women, members of scheduled caste and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan activist Kanji Ranomal welcomed the judicial bus.

Later, the bus reached the city in a caravan after one and half hour long drive and took a tour of the city.

Our Hyderabad Bureau adds: When the judicial bus reached the Hyderabad toll plaza, it was accorded a rousing reception by the lawyers of Hyderabad and Jamshoro and garlanded. On their way to Mirpurkhas, the judges were received at Tando Allahyar by the members of the district bar.