LAHORE, Feb 12: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan has said the government is trying hard to break the alliance between the political leaders and lawyers to contain the latter’s movement.

Addressing the Lahore Bar Association’s weekly meeting at the Aiwan-i-Adl before the lawyer’s rally here on Thursday, he said the country’s future was at stake owing to a delay in the restoration of judiciary. However, he said, the corrupt would not restore the judges.

He said the government was using different tactics to keep political parties away from lawyer’s movement. He reiterated the government was continuing the policies of Musharraf regime and only faces of rulers had changed.

He said a struggle for change had started the moment the judiciary had refused to obey a dictator. He said President Asif Zardari had forgotten the promise to restore Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry but he should remember the announcement made by late Benazir Bhutto outside the residence of the judge.

He advised the lawyers that learning from their ‘past mistakes’, they should invite all civil society organisations and political parties to join in their movement and the sit-in.

Iqbal Haider: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan member Iqbal Haider has said the government should lift Section 144 restrictions in Islamabad and move a constitutional package based on the Charter of Democracy in the National Assembly session starting from Feb 16.

At a meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association before the rally of lawyers and political parties, Mr Haider said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would be known as the heir to Gen Pervez Musharraf instead of Benazir Bhutto in case he failed to present a constitutional package based on the CoD for the restoration of the parliamentary system.

He said the government should lift Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Islamabad because it would not stop the lawyers from marching on Islamabad next month.

He said the prime minister was the chief executive in a parliamentary system and the president was only a figure head. He said lawyers were struggling for the independence of judiciary, a pre-requisite for strong democratic institutions. The fanatics trying to seize power in the name of religion had nothing to do with Islam.

Former LHCBA president Ahmad Awais said lawyers were committed to the restoration of rule of law because they believed that the country could not survive without it.

American lawyer Tayyaba Zia Cheema said the lawyers were doing the work of politicians by struggling for the rule of law. She said Nawaz Sharif would have to join not only the long march but also the sit-in. She said President Asif Ali Zardari was proving to be a worse dictator than Musharraf.

rally: Lawyers on Thursday observed a weekly boycott of courts in connection with the movement for restoration of independent judiciary and staged a rally on The Mall along with civil society organisations and workers of political parties.