Top Pak. lawyer to campaign on 'judicial bus'
Islamabad (PTI): Top Pakistani lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, arrested under emergency regulations for spearheading protests by the legal fraternity, is planning to campaign for the reinstatement of deposed judges on a "judicial bus".
Ahsan, now under house arrest in Lahore, plans to campaign across Pakistan after his release. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan on Wednesday said Ahsan and other political prisoners would be freed in the next few days.
Ahsan had defended deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry following President Pervez Musharraf's attempts to suspend him in March.
The lawyer, who is also president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said he would campaign for the senior judges who refused to take oath under Musharraf's Provisional Constitution Order.
Supreme Court Bar Association secretary Amin Javed confirmed that Ahsan was planning a countrywide tour. Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to the legal fraternity, Ahsan said if political parties decide to participate in the upcoming general election, the lawyers should make all candidates commit themselves to working for the restoration of the pre-emergency judiciary.
"As I write this from a sub-jail, let me tell you how proud I am of each one of you and of myself to be part of the community that is writing the present chapter in the history of our unfortunate country," he said in the letter.
"We must have a strategy to use the momentum to our own advantage. Otherwise our demand may go on the back burner and local issues of roads, water, sewerage, schools and other services may engage the people in the hustle and bustle of the nationwide election campaign," wrote Ahsan, who has filed nomination papers as a candidate of the Pakistan People's Party.
He proposed that the Supreme Court Bar Association should prescribe an oath for the candidates.
"The oath should require from each deponent to swear that, if elected, he or she would move, pursue and vote for a motion, resolution, law or amendment ensuring restoration of the 'ousted' judges," he said.
"A synchronised nationwide activity, with the bars playing the lead role while highlighting the primary demand, would help create a large lobby...committed to the major demand as we begin to ride the 'judicial bus' that may yet be necessary by late January 2008," he added.
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