ISLAMABAD, 5 May 2007 — Pakistan’s suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry will travel to Lahore by road today, undeterred by government warnings of bomb threats in the country, to rally support for his legal battle with President Pervez Musharraf.
The authorities yesterday detained opposition activists across Punjab province ahead of his visit to the provincial capital.
According to figures from different districts of Punjab more than 1,600 political workers were arrested till yesterday evening. Zafar Iqbal Jhagra of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) said hundreds of their workers were arrested from Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan, Jhelum, Gujrat and Gujranwala.
Pakistan People’s Party leader Jahangir Badar told Arab News, hundreds of their workers were detained while many had gone into hiding to escape arrest. He said his party would accord a historic welcome to Chaudhry in Lahore.
The Punjab government has said it has taken all possible steps to provide security to the suspended chief justice.
Lawyers and opposition parties hope to draw huge crowds to the rally today in the eastern city of Lahore, where Chaudhry is to speak. Ameerul-Azeem, a spokesman for a coalition of religious opposition parties, accused authorities of rounding up “thousands” of activists, mostly in Lahore, to stymie the protest. A senior provincial official confirmed that police had detained people to prevent any “untoward incidents,” but put the number at more than 500.
Earlier yesterday, the government urged Chaudhry to travel by air rather than road because of “credible threats” of bomb attacks in the wake of an April 28 suicide attack on Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.
The minister escaped with bruises but 28 people were killed in the blast, the latest in a long line of attacks by militants infuriated by Musharraf’s alliance with Washington.
“In view of the hazardous security situation in the country, we have requested the chief justice to travel by air instead of road,” Syed Kamal Shah, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters.
The judge’s lawyers, however, suspected the warning was an attempt to disrupt Chaudhry’s campaign to assert the independence of the judiciary in the fight against misconduct charges leveled by Musharraf two months ago.
“The chief justice will be going by road along with a large number of lawyers,” said Aitzaz Ahsan, Chaudhry’s top lawyer.
“It is the government’s duty to take adequate measures for the security of the chief justice. The government is nervous and itself has designs to disturb the journey but we will not change our schedule.” Chaudhry has already traveled to several cities and addressed bar councils since his suspension, but observers attach great importance to the Lahore visit.
The city is Pakistan’s political nerve center, and a substantial turnout there in support of Chaudhry could give fresh impetus to the anti-Musharraf drive, observers say.
Chaudhry’s suspension on March 9 plunged Pakistan into a judicial crisis regarded as the most serious challenge to Musharraf’s authority since he took power in 1999.
Lawyers and opposition activists in Pakistan’s main cities have held protests over the past few weeks whenever Chaudhry has appeared before a panel of judges, known as the Supreme Judicial Council.
The controversy has failed to ignite mass demonstrations so far, but it has hurt Musharraf’s standing, and the judicial crisis comes at an awkward time.
