Price-hike to be tackled after judges' restoration

He said his party, PPP, was in power and he wanted it to stay on and deliver to the cause of public welfare but the poor were being badly discriminated. The restoration of judges, he maintained, would check this discrimination so much so nobody would dare deprive the poor of what they needed to sustain the life. Rejecting the judiciary under Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, he said, the present judiciary did not hold mettle to call to account the responsible for the present price-hike and to know from them how much profit they were earning and where they were dumping the goods when the people were starving.

Barrister Aitzaz said the countrywide lawyers had set a deadline of August 14 for the restoration of judges failing which, he added, the National Coordination Council would meet and finalise the protest programme in the fourth phase of the lawyers’ movement and that could also include sit-in before the Parliament, long march and even civil disobedience. He said after August 14, Bars throughout the country at their respective level, may be called to hold a two-hour sit-in at any central place, including GT Road, on every Thursday while the sit-in may be converted into a continuous protest in order to press revival of the November 2 judiciary. Lawyers’ movement, he said, was totally peaceful and non-violent but that must not be under estimated. He said the countrywide sit-in protest would be far more effective than the long march.

He said on July 20,2007 SC gave a landmark decision and put the country on the road to justice and fair-play but General (r) Musharraf not affording it on November 3 made another coup and removed 60 judges of the superior judiciary and detained them along with their families. Addressing the PPP lawyers, Aitzaz said, Shaheed Quaid of the party, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto standing outside the barricaded residence of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had loudly voiced for his restoration as Chief Justice of Pakistan and again raising the national flag at his residence.