Black coats protests on 28th

ISLAMABAD - President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan on Monday announced the lawyers across Pakistan will stage a two-hour protest on August 28 to denounce the delay in restoration of deposed judges. Addressing a news conference here at his residence, Aitzaz Ahsan said that the lawyers were forced to restart their protest due to violation of repeated assurances and agreements from the government to restore all the deposed judges, including deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Aitzaz asked the people of Pakistan to tolerate any inconvenience as a result of the protest calls by the lawyers as the latter is aiming for a greater cause. "A protest will be held in front of the Parliament House on September 4 to press the demand for restoration of judges," Aitzaz told reporters. "We are pleading our case before Parliament and only representatives from all bars would be invited to participate in the protest, which will be completely peaceful," he added. However, SCBA President warned that more bigger protest calls may be given to refurbish the lawyers' movement on previous lines if the judges are not restored. Aitzaz said the Monday's strike across the country was a complete success and black flags were hoisted on rooftops of Bars as a sign of protest. In reply to a question about the ongoing rift between SCBA and PBC, Aitzaz said he is not in favour of any such confrontation but the steps of Council to remove Rashid A Rizvi, Hafiz Ansari and Ali Ahmed Kurd from Executive Committee have dented the spirit of lawyers' movement. SCBA President appealed to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani to recall Shaheed BB's words, as he also became premier due to the efforts of his late leader.     About the allegation against deposed Chief Justice for his being involved in politics, Aitzaz said none of the deposed judges had anything to do with politics. SCBA President said it was the massive lawyers' movement, which compelled Pervez Musharraf to resign. "If US was intervening in the restoration of deposed Chief Justice or any other element, the government should let us know so that we, the lawyers community, can tackle them on our own," he said. Leaders of different Bar Associations including Sardar Asmatullah, Haroon ur Rashid, spokesman for deposed Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Sardar Tariq Masood were also present.

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