Police used wooden sticks and teargas to stop a procession of lawyers, taken out on Wednesday in protest against suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, from reaching the Governor's House and the chief minister's official residence, while the Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Javed Iqbal, was in the city.
Two lawyers were injured in the police assault and the Acting Chief Justice took notice of the incident on an application submitted by Advocate Imranul Haque, vice-president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
Justice Javed Iqbal, who had arrived here from Islamabad earlier on Wednesday on a two-day visit, went to his chamber in the Balochistan High Court building.
Vice-Chairman of Balochistan Bar Association Hashim Khan Kakar announced after the police action that lawyers would boycott court proceedings in the province on Thursday to condemn what he described as police high-handedness against the peaceful procession of lawyers.
Earlier on Wednesday, lawyers had boycotted the proceedings of courts on the call of the PBC and the SCBA in protest against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar.
The lawyers demanded immediate reinstatement of the chief justice.
Hundreds of lawyers who had gathered for a third time outside the Supreme Court to protest against the "suspension" of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry kept themselves at a distance from the political parties during their peaceful demonstration.
The lawyers made a ‘human wall' around their procession which took off at Jinnah Avenue and concluded outside the SC.
"We think the lawyers' movement and the political parties' campaign against the CJ's ‘suspension' should be separated," senior lawyer Hamid Khan, who is defending Justice Chaudhry with other lawyers before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), told Dawn.
He said the lawyers did not want to hold a joint protest with politicians and for that reason they had kept themselves away from the political groups outside the SC building.
The opposition parties were also seen holding separate rallies and public meetings outside the SC. The rally of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP), led by its vice-chairman Yousaf Raza Gillani, reached the SC from the party's central secretariat. The activists and leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), led by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, came from the Parliament Lodges.
Except one incident of a skirmish between the police and political workers, the overall situation remained peaceful on Wednesday. Timely intervention of senior officials of the local administration averted a clash between the security personnel and the protesters.
Tension developed early in the morning near the Parliament House when dozens of workers of political parties were stopped by police from proceeding towards the SC.
Heavy contingents of capital police, Rangers and Punjab police were seen at different points in the vicinity of the SC and outside it with weapons and armoured vehicles.
Barricades and rings of barbed wire had been erected on all the ways leading to the Constitution Avenue.
Protest rallies were also held in other cities throughout the country.
The ruling by the puppet slave of the US and western disbeliever's lobby, Pervez Musharraf, has increased turmoil in the Islamic State of Pakistan. The current crisis will be further agitated as it is known that a non muslim is going to be appointed as the Chief Justice of the Apex Court of Pakistan.
Senator Maulana Samiul Haq said on Wednesday that a non-Muslim could not become the chief justice of the highest court of an Islamic state from the Islamic and the Shariah point of view. He said the current situation was agonising for the country and it should pause for reflection
The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan is very clear. It requires only the president of Pakistan to be a Muslim. In case of the prime minister, there is no bar in the Constitution but his oath of office requires him to be a ‘believer'.
In a statement, he said never had a non-Muslim held such a post in the Islamic history and it was "mandatory for a Qazi to be a Muslim". He said the situation could become even more critical because Shariah Appellate Bench also worked under the Chief Justice of Pakistan and a final decision relating to Shariah was in the jurisdiction of the chief justice.
However some of the current and former justices declined to comment on this issue. These people fear that they might be apprehended for their remarks by the tyrannical regime of " Bu-sharraf"
KC
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