PM's single word can reinstate judges: Aitzaz

ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - Aitzaz Ahsan, a top leader of Pakistan's popular lawyers' movement has promised more, larger rallies on the heels of a massive protest in the capital demanding that the government restore judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf. Aitzaz Ahsan gave no date for the future protests, but his comments indicated that the lawyers did not intend to ease their campaign for the restoration of the judges - a subject that threatens to split the new coalition government and hasten the demise of the unpopular president. "There will be other marches ... there will be bigger marches," Aitzaz Ahsan told an American news agency. He said lawyer leaders would soon meet to discuss fresh protests. President of Supreme Court Bar Association Barrister Aitzaz said that lawyers had not stepped back from their stand and would carry on their struggle for the restoration of judges. He said that there was no need for any constitutional package for restoring the deposed judges and Prime Minister's single word can do the job. Talking to media before leaving for Haripur along with deposed CJ Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for condoling the death of Supreme Court's Vice-President Saeed Akhtar's father's death, he said that reinstatement of judges was their mission and "we should keep striking and long marching until the purpose is achieved". He said, "We appreciate the public as they warmly welcomed long march and opened the eyes of anti lobbies. He said that all the lawyer community was united and the movement would continue until the accomplishment of our goal. "We had not decided a sit-in and I always said we would decide it during the long march gathering". Aitzaz Ahsan said he does not take decisions alone, but these were taken by Supreme Court Bar Association, the Pakistan Bar Council and other bodies. "We would suddenly formulate our further strategy," he said. He said the people fully participated in long-march and warmly welcomed it. "We would decide another long march and the people would support us," he said. He further said the lawyers showed to the world that people of Pakistan want restoration of judiciary and it should be definitely restored. Responding to a question, he said hundreds of men wanted sit-in but "we told them, if any one wants sit-in then they could do so". To another question he said, "There are two parts of the Constitutional Package, one part is about the authority of the President and we support it that there should be a balance between the President and the Prime Minister powers. The other is about the judiciary and we have some reservations about it which we do not recognize".

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