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Monday, May 19, 2008
PML-N to join lawyers’ protests
* Party spokesman says Nawaz will participate in long march
* PPP says protests premature as reinstatement issue under considerationISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will join lawyers in street protests to press for the restoration of judiciary sacked on November 3, 2007, PML-N spokesman Sadiqul Farooq said on Sunday. Leaders of the lawyers’ movement said this weekend that they would organise a ‘long march’ starting on June 10 to demand that the judges be reinstated. The route will include the cities of Multan, Lahore and Islamabad. “We will not only fully support, but (will) also be part and parcel of this long march,” he said, adding that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif would personally participate. Farooq said his party was not trying to destabilise the government, which is only about seven weeks old, but wanted to remind it “to fulfil its commitment” to reinstate the judges. The PML-N’s decision to join protests by the lawyers’ movement could further pressure the larger partner in the coalition, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Protests premature: PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Nawaz’s supporters had a “democratic right” to march along with the lawyers. “However, we feel that since the issue of reinstatement of judges is already under consideration, the protest demonstrations at this point in time are premature,” he said. Last week, Nawaz pulled his ministers from the Cabinet over the judges’ issue, but so far he has said his party would not move to the opposition and would support the PPP on an issue-by-issue basis. PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari has insisted he can persuade Nawaz to return to the government fold. Aitzaz Ahsan, a leader of the lawyers’ movement, on Sunday urged popular support for the protests as he laid out the expected route. “We have given the call for the long march, and the energies of all lawyers of Pakistan, masses and civil society shall be spent to make it a successful event,” he said. Babar declined on Sunday to say whether the judges could be restored before June 10, but admitted his party’s popularity might have “received some setback” over the issue. “But we are confident that when the judges are finally restored according to the PPP plan, the party will be able to not only regain lost ground but also win much more,” he said. President Pervez Musharraf fired dozens of judges who refused to take oath under his Provisional Constitution Order after he declared a state of emergency in November last year. ap
Courtesy Daily Times