LAHORE, Jan 20: Lawyers’ National Coordination Committee Chairman Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has said sit-ins will be staged throughout the country on March 9 in case the government tried to prevent the long march on Islamabad.

Addressing a meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) here on Tuesday in connection with the campaign for 10 million signatures for the restoration of independent judiciary, the former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president said the lawyers would start a sit-in wherever they were stopped during the long march.

The lawyers were not banking on the support of Punjab government for the success of the long march because nothing could be said about its shape on March 9. They had not sought the assistance of Punjab government during their previous long march but Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had helped them as a political party.

He said the long march would be completely peaceful like the previous one because the lawyers believed in non-violence. He said that women and children would also participate in the next long march. He said that previous long march was successful and sit-in had not been staged because no decision had been taken about it.

He said negation of Nov 3 action of Gen Pervez Musharraf was a pre-requisite for restoration of independence of judiciary. President Asif Ali Zardari had signed agreements to restore the Nov 2 judiciary on March 9, and Aug 5 and 7 last year. He also undertook to restore the judges within 24 hours of exit of Gen Musharraf.

Restoration of judges under the Murree Declaration was also necessary for fulfilling the promise of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He said that the future of the country was linked to the restoration of independent judiciary because the country could not attract foreign investment without it.

He said the rulers had turned Pakistan into a national security state and made the judiciary subservient. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah promised to make Pakistan a welfare state in his speech to the Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947, but the government had given up its responsibilities to provide free education and medical treatment and solve their housing and transport problems by resorting to privatisation. The future of the coming generations had also been mortgaged by security loans of more than $40 billion.

He said he had a 40 years association with the Pakistan People’s Party and his differences with its leadership on the judges issues were known to all.

LHCBA President Anwar Kamal said no decision had been taken about sit-in during the previous long march but the next long march would end with a sit-in. SCBA Secretary Shaukat Omar Pirzada said the present government had come into power as a result of the lawyers’ movement. It should hold the generals accountable for violating the Constitution so that their successors should desist from doing so.

Lahore Bar Association President Rana Zia Abul Rehman, senior vice-president MR Awan and vice-president Khalid Chaudhry said lawyers supported democracy and wanted to strengthen political parties but the politicians who had returned to power as a result of their movement had refused to accept their demand for restoration of the judges. He said the long march would have one point agenda of restoration of Nov 2, 2007, judiciary.