ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: Fearing February 18 general elections would again be postponed Bushra Aitzaz, wife of detained lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan on Thursday expressed the hope that the popular movement of the legal fraternity, civil society and the people was bound to succeed in sending the present rulers packing.

“The February 18 polls will be deferred in the same fashion like the earlier scheduled for January 8 because the shameful defeat of the PML-Q was written on the walls,” Ms Bushra elaborated while speaking at the Islamabad District Bar.

She had come to address the bar on the invitation of the Islamabad bar all the way from Lahore amidst hailstorm, intermittent rains and typical capital’s chill weather. “I have come here as a token to fulfil a promise since my husband had to offer Eid prayers with capital’s lawyers and deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry,” she said.

She was garlanded and accorded standing ovation when she stepped inside the packed to capacity auditorium where the lawyers also chanted anti president slogans like ‘Go Musharraf Go.’

President Supreme Court Bar (SCBA) Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan who was arrested on the eve of Eidul Azha when he was on his way to Islamabad to offer Eid prayers with the deposed chief justice and detained judges is still under detention inside his Lahore residence.

Aitzaz Ahsan has the distinction of spearheading famous lawyer’s movement that culminated in the restoration of deposed chief justice. He was unceremoniously removed by President Pervez Musharraf on March 9, 2007. However the chief justice was deposed again by the president after proclaiming emergency rule which he later lifted on December 15.

The successful lawyer’s campaign has made the members of the legal fraternity all proud and has put them at the highest pedestal in the society, she said adding the fight which President Musharraf started on March 9 was won by the lawyers on July 20, the date when the chief justice was restored in an unanimous order by the Supreme Court.

But to save himself from imminent disqualification in the presidential elections, the president deposed all the judges of the superior courts under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

For us, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry is the real chief justice, Ms Aitzaz said and resolved that until Justice Iftikhar was reinstated as chief justice, the ongoing lawyers movement for the independence of the judiciary would continue.

RAWALPINDI: Addressing Rawalpindi Bar Association, Ali Ahsan, the son of Ch Aitzaz Ahsan said the on-going struggle of the lawyers was for a just cause, therefore, it would bound to succeed and any intimidation or enticement could demoralise their leaders.