May 09, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1429

LAHORE, May 8: Workers of political parties almost outnumbered lawyers in their Thursday rally, slating the sitting judges for swearing to work under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

Though Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, during his address at the Lahore Bar Association, expressed his party’s resolve to restore the deposed judges, senior lawyers at the Lahore High Court Bar Association rejected the move to retain `PCO judges’. “Blurring the distinction between the real and the PCO judges will be a cruel mistake,” said Nisar Safdar advocate while addressing the LHCBA general meeting.

A good number of lawyers this correspondent talked to were not sure the coalition would be able to honour its fresh commitment of reinstating the deposed judges by May 12. "The knot the PPP seems to have tied with the establishment is a stumbling block in the restoration of the judges," said former LHCBA secretary Sarfraz Cheema.

After their general house meetings, the lawyers at Aiwan-i-Adl and the Lahore High Court Bar assembled in front of the GPO (General Post Office). On their way, some lawyers gathered at the high court judges' gate and chanted slogans against the `PCO judges’ - a practice that had been the hallmark of every weekly rally when Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry was the LHC chief justice.

Though a few familiar faces associated with the PML-N were seen in the rally, their workers – known for raising peculiar slogans holding party flags - were missing. The PPP has already abandoned lawyers’ shows since the Feb 18 election.Workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf, Jamaat-i-Islami, Khaksaar Tehrik, Labour Party made their presence felt through their sloganeering against Pervez Musharraf. Several lawyers beat up a Labour Party worker, who had an argument with a lawyer over getting a bottle of water from a van distributing water among the protesters.

On reaching in front of the Punjab Assembly, the lawyer's leaders delivered speeches and resolved to continue their campaign till the restoration of the 'deposed' judges and ouster of the PCO-judges.

LHCBA: During the general house meeting of the LHCBA, its secretary Rana Asadullah expressed regrets that even the senior lawyers were not heeding the Pakistan Bar Council's call to observe strike every Thursday. Several lawyers demanded that their names be made public and removed from the list of members of the LHCBA. However, the demand was ignored.

The secretary said the bar would observe complete strike on May 12, observe it as a black day and hold a protest meeting to condemn killings of lawyers and others in Karachi on this date. Former LHCBA secretary Sarfraz Cheema said the political parties were dragging their feet once more on the restoration of the judges, ignoring their commitment to the people.

LBA: Addressing lawyers at the LBA, PML-N leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said parliament would suffer a serious setback if the judges were not restored in line with the aspirations of the people. He added if the PCO judges were retained the people would believe that it was another arrangement like that of the one witnessed under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

He said the lawyers' movement had entered a decisive phase and the political parties would loose credibility if they cast aside their sacrifices for the cause of the judiciary.

He made it clear that if the parliament did not hold Musharraf accountable for his unconstitutional steps taken on Nov 3, he (Musharraf) would have all the justification to continue usurping the rights of the people.