PESHAWAR, Nov 12: A group of rights activists from the Women Action Forum met the deposed chief justice of the Peshawar High Court Justice Tariq Pervez at his residence on Monday and expressed solidarity with all judges of the superior courts who had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

The delegation appreciated the deposed chief justice and his colleagues.

The members of the delegation comprising Rukhshanda Naz, Zubaida Noor, Bushra Gohar, Uzma Mehboob, Shabina Ayaz, Shakila Khan and Saima Muneer assured the deposed chief justice that the civil society would continue to support the struggle being waged by independent-minded judges of the superior courts under the leadership of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The women rights activists told the deposed chief justice that the civil society considered the imposition of emergency, sacking of judges of the superior courts and placing of curbs on the free media by the military-led regime an insult to the 160 million people of the country that would not be tolerated at any cost, said a press release issued here on Monday.

The delegation members told the deposed chief justice that the civil society organisations had chalked out a comprehensive plan to fight the draconian actions under the emergency rule.

They said that all brutal measures to subdue the judiciary and free media would ultimately fail as the masses would not allow any individual to snatch their rights at gunpoint.

The deposed chief justice was in high spirits and expressed the resolve to continue to stand for the rule of law.

He took pride in not taking oath under the PCO and expressed gratitude to all those who had stood behind the judiciary and the judges in their struggle for the rule of law.