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Clash averted in Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers countrywide boycotted courts again and held protests alongside Opposition political parties on Tuesday, when Pakistan Chief Justice appeared for the sixth hearing of the reference against him. Police averted a clash between hundreds of stick-brandishing pro- and anti-Musharraf supporters who eyeballed each other across rows of concertina wire near the Supreme Court.

This was the first time since the protests began that activists of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) came out on the streets to rival the Opposition rallies. Party president Chaudhary Shujat Hussain said the purpose of the rally was to express solidarity with the judiciary, which was "under siege" by the Opposition.

But angry Opposition activists and anti-Musharraf lawyers were determined not to allow the ruling party demonstration to reach the Supreme Court, which has become the ground zero of anti-Musharraf protests. A confrontation was prevented by police in the nick of time, as well as by senior leaders on both sides who counselled their followers to refrain from violence. Information Minister Muhammed Ali Durrani, who was among the ruling party marchers, said the PML(Q) did not want to "politicise" the issue, but was forced to come out to prevent the Opposition from "hijacking" the cause of the judiciary.

The Supreme Judicial Council adjourned the hearing until May 2, and said it expected Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary's lawyers to conclude arguments on their preliminary legal objections. At Tuesday's hearing, defence counsel questioned the powers of the President and the Supreme Judicial Council to restrain a superior judge from functioning.

Separately, a judge heading the Supreme Court bench that was to take up a petition by Mr. Chaudhary said he could not hear the case as he was one of the five judges in the Supreme Judicial Council who had passed orders restraining him from performing his duties. He asked the acting Chief Justice to constitute a larger bench.

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