ISLAMABAD/JHELUM, 6 May 2007 — Pakistan’s suspended chief justice left the capital for the eastern city of Lahore yesterday to address a rally of his supporters. Musharraf sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9, sparking a political crisis.
Earlier, police detained hundreds of opposition workers to prevent them from joining the rally in support of the top judge, activists said yesterday.
Chaudhry is traveling by road from Islamabad to Lahore, where lawyers have promised him a “historic welcome.” Officials said police had blocked roads to prevent Chaudhry’s supporters from joining his caravan.
Thousands of supporters cheered the top judge yesterday as he left for Lahore to gather support for his fight against President Pervez Musharraf’s attempt to sack him.
Police rounded up hundreds of opposition activists and ransacked stalls set up on the roadside to try to undermine the visit by Chaudhry to the capital of Punjab province.
Musharraf’s move to sack Chaudhry is seen by the legal community and opposition groups as an attack on the independence of the judiciary.
His refusal to resign in the face of charges of misconduct and the widespread sympathy for his stand has created the most serious challenge to Musharraf’s authority since he came to power in a military coup seven and a half years ago.
Flag-waving activists from opposition parties chanted “Go, Musharraf, Go” as Chaudhry left his home in the capital, Islamabad, for his journey on the historic Grand Trunk Road.
Crowd swelled as Chaudhry’s convoy headed toward Lahore. Thousands of people shouting “we are with the chief justice” packed the roadsides and greeted him with drums and fireworks.
“This injustice is not just to the chief justice but to the whole nation,” Raja Liaquat, a 64-year-old landlord, said in the city of Jhelum — roughly half way between Islamabad and Lahore — as horsemen wearing colorful turbans and lawyers riding on a traditional horse-drawn cart greeted Chaudhry.
Speaking briefly to lawyers in the city of Gujrat, home town of the leadership of ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry called for unity.
“You should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with one another,” he said but avoided to comment on charges against him.
Thousands of people are expected to greet Chaudhry in Lahore around midnight, where lawyers have led a movement to defend the judiciary, and the number of the high court judges who turn up for his address will be a measure of his support.
Residents said transmissions by several private television channels showing live pictures of Chaudhry’s procession had been blocked in the southern Sindh province.
Musharraf accused lawyers of “politicizing” a judicial matter by holding protests.
“I warn the lawyers that they will not succeed in their designs,” he told a rally in a far-off town in southern province of Sindh. “I ask the lawyers to shun politics.” Musharraf is due to seek re-election in September or October. Controversially, he aims to be re-elected by the current national and provincial assemblies before they are dissolved for elections the president says could take place around November.
Analysts say Musharraf’s main motive for seeking the independent-minded Chaudhry’s removal is to have a more pliable chief justice in place in case of constitutional challenges to his plans.
He has already traveled to Sindh and North West Frontier Province, where he was received by a large number of judges. But Punjab is more important as its most senior judge sits on the Supreme Judicial Council, a five-member panel holding an inquiry into the misconduct charges against the chief justice.
Chaudhry has objected to his presence, saying he is biased, and wants his case to be switched to the Supreme Court.
Punjab is politically influential because traditionally it has been the stronghold of the Pakistani establishment and is the country’s most populous and richest region.
