Pakistan Views

Lawyers across country on Sunday launched a week-long protest to push for their demand to restore the deposed Chief Justice and 60 other top judges who have been sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. President Musharraf dismissed the judges on November 3rd when he proclaimed emergency, suspended the constitution and issued a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). But the judges who refused to take oath under the PCO were sacked. The lawyers launched ‘Black Flag Week’ with rallies countrywide to express solidarity with the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges, most of them for four months. The protest week marks the first anniversary of the sacking of the former Chief Justice by President Musharraf on March 9th 2007. The Supreme Court restored Chief Justice Chaudhry in July but was again sacked on November 3rd.
Lawyers hoisted black flags on bar associations, houses, offices, vehicles and public places as part of the protest to continue until March 16. Conventions were organised at bar rooms and rallies staged in major cities. “The residences of deposed chief justice and other judges have been converted into personal prisons for four months,” president of the Supreme Court Bar Association barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said. Ahsan told a news conference in Lahore that children of the Chief Justice are also under detention for four months but the Supreme Court judges are not taking notice of the detention.