KARACHI, June 9: The legal fraternity of the city, along with members of civil society and political activists, on Monday left for Sukkur to participate in the ‘long march’ aimed at pressuring the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government to restore the judiciary to its pre-PCO position.

Deposed chief justice of the Sindh High Court Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and retired Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim saw off the convoy of dozens of vehicles.

While addressing the lawyers’ gathering Justice Sabihuddin said that an independent judiciary was essential for a democratic society, adding that the judges would dispense speedy justice to the common man once they were reinstated.

Justice Ebrahim stated that the lawyers’ long march was not against any individual but for the independence of the judiciary and the reinstatement of deposed judges.

The long march, he said was the need of the hour and urged the lawyers, members of civil society and political workers to participate in it and hoped that the lawyers’ ongoing struggle for the restoration of pre-PCO judiciary would end as a success.

President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Rasheed A. Razvi vowed to continue the ongoing struggle till the reinstatement of all deposed judges to their Nov-2 positions.

On Tuesday (today), the lawyers’ caravans would head to Multan from Sukkur, which is the main gathering point of the rally.

Earlier, lawyers from the Karachi, Malir and Sindh High Court bar associations proceeded towards the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam in processions led by the presidents of the respective bars, where politicians and lawyers addressed the gathering.

Jamaat-i-Islami leader Munawwar Hasan said all the deposed judges could be reinstated through an executive order and termed the constitutional package offered by the PPP a ‘fraud.’

He urged Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif to make it clear whether he was with Asif Ali Zardari or with the people of Pakistan, adding that the nation would not tolerate more excuses regarding the reinstatement of deposed judges.

Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Munir A. Malik said that the struggle against the ousting of judges would continue till the restoration of the Nov-2 judiciary.

Provincial leader of the PML-N Saleem Zia, KBA President Mahmoodul Hasan, advocate Sathi M. Ishaq and others also spoke. The lawyers and political workers belonging to the PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Tehreek-i-Insaf and component parties of the All-Parties Democratic Movement chanted anti-Musharraf slogans during the event.

Strict security arrangements were made ahead of the lawyers’ processions and heavy contingents of police and other law enforcement agencies were deployed at bar associations as well as along the routes of the processions.

Meanwhile, chairman of the human rights committee of the Sindh Bar Council Aqil Lodhi, while addressing an emergency meeting of the body, said that the long march was not against the new democratic government, but it was against retired General Pervez Musharraf, adding that he had requested SCBA President Aitzaz Ahsan to conclude the long march at Rawalpindi Cantt rather then Parliament House, as according to him, most conspiracies had been hatched from the former against democratic governments for the last 60 years.

The meeting, through a resolution, supported the long march and urged members of civil society, political parties, farmers and labourers to participate in the march.