LAHORE, Jan 24: The PML-N-led Punjab government provided full protocol to deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on his arrival in the city to administer oath to newly-elected office-bearers of the Lahore Bar Association.

He was accorded a warm welcome at the airport by a large number of lawyers, political activists and members of civil society. He was received by Lawyers’ National Coordination Committee Chairman Aitzaz Ahsan, Supreme Court Bar Association President Ali Ahmad Kurd, Munir A. Malik, Lahore High Court Bar Association President Anwar Kamal, Lahore Bar Association’s president-elect Rana Zia Abdur Rehman, deposed judge of the Supreme Court Khalil Ramdey and Hamid Ali Khan.

The PML-N was represented by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood, MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq and Mian Marghoob Ahmad.

No main leaders of Tehrik-i-Insaaf, Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakhtunkhwa Awami Milli Party were there. Khaksar Tehrik chief Hameed Almashriqi, nevertheless, led a handful of his party workers.

Political activists, mostly belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-N, and lawyers raised slogans in favour of the sacked chief justice and against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Some of the lawyers were beaten by Airport Security Force personnel when they tried to force their way into the airport’s lounges.

The lawyers thrashed a police constable, who had grabbed one of them from the collar of his coat at the airport’s waiting area. The constable had chased away the lawyers when they broke a police picket outside the waiting area.

A group of lawyers climbed over the barricade to reach the waiting area.

The number of people continued to swell as Justice Iftikhar’s procession reached Upper Mall and slowly moved towards the venue of oath-taking ceremony on Fane Road. It took eight hours for Justice Iftikhar’s caravan to reach the venue, at about 9pm.

The deposed CJ travelled in a black bullet-proof jeep provided by the Punjab government. Aitzaz Ahsan drove the jeep up to Lahore Gymkhana.

Carrying banners and placards, political workers and lawyers showered rose petals on Justice Iftikhar and chanted slogans like “Chief tere jaanisar baishumar”, “Zinda hain wukla zinda hain”, “Zardari ka jo yaar hai ghaddar hai” and “Jajoon ki bahali tak jang raheygi, jang raheygi.”

From Upper Mall onwards, the caravan stopped at eight reception points set up by the PML-N. At the Charing Cross point, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s son and MNA Hamza Shahbaz welcomed the deposed chief justice.

He said that by repeatedly adjourning the disqualification case of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, the “Dogar court” was wasting time of the people.

Till our going to the press, the oath-taking ceremony was continuing and a number of lawyers, including Aitzaz Ahsan and

Ali Ahmed Kurd, had made speeches.