Anti-Musharraf lawyers begin march into Pakistani capital

Islamabad - Pakistani lawyers flanked by political and rights activists Thursday set out on the final leg of their cross- country march into the capital Islamabad to press the government for the re-instatement of more than 60 judges axed by President Pervez Musharraf.

Junior coalition leader Nawaz Sharif, whose government was toppled by Musharraf in 1999, saw off the vehicular rally termed a 'long march' as it began the journey from the eastern city of Lahore amid much fanfare.

'I salute all these deposed who refused to bow before a dictator,' Sharif told a rally attended by thousands. 'Pakistan is on the brink of disaster. The whole nation has to rise to save it. Come and join the long march.'

The march that will cover 270 kilometres, passing through dozens of towns, is likely to reach Islamabad early Friday. Protesters have planned to stage a sit-in outside the parliament building.

Crowds lined the streets in Lahore, showering the convoy - that the Geo news channel reported was around eight kilometres long - with rose petals and waving party flags while yelling slogans that invited the public to join their struggle launched to 'save the country.'

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party has vowed to support the campaign until its logical end.

'Musharraf is already leaving, I am telling you. But I want to say when he leaves the dictatorship also leaves with him forever,' Sharif said in Lahore.

The rally that started from the southern port city of Karachi on Monday initially called for the ouster of Musharraf but senior attorneys later shifted the focus to the governing coalition that had given a pledge to restore the judiciary.

'Musharraf will be gone in the next few days and the public will celebrate it, but the (deposed) judges will remain sacked,' Aitzaz Ahsan, a senior attorney and the head of lawyers' movement said on Wednesday.

He was also Chaudhry's lead counsel when the top judge was taken to the dock by the embattled president in March 2007 over charges of misconduct in an abortive attempt to remove him.

The justice was reinstated in the third week of July 2007 after a dramatic uproar by lawyers backed by opponents of the military president.

Musharraf later purged the judiciary of independent-minded adjudicators when he proclaimed emergency rule on November 3 to preempt a possible verdict against his controversial re-election, triggering countrywide protests by lawyers and the civil society.

The public sentiment against Musharraf translated into the defeat of his political allies in the February 18 general elections that saw the outright victory of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Sharif's PML-N.

Both parties agreed on the judges' reinstatement but later developed serious differences over the mechanics, forcing the PML-N to pull out its members from the cabinet in protest.

Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded Bhutto as the PPP head, insists that the restoration must be brought through a controversial constitutional reforms package, but Sharif wants the job done through a parliamentary resolution as agreed upon by them in March.

Meanwhile, authorities have intensified security in and around the capital and declared the area around the parliament building a 'red zone,' banning public access to it.

Boulevards leading to the site were earlier sealed using cargo containers and concrete blocks but those were replaced with barbed wire and steel barriers after public criticism.

Analysts say the assemblage of a large crowd in Islamabad would create immense pressure for the ruling PPP which is believed to be delaying the re-instatement.

Once reinstated, the defiant judges could accept legal challenges to a law passed by Musharraf under which Zardari was acquitted of numerous graft charges.

However, Zardari argues that his party was working for the 'independence of judiciary' rather than focusing on any specific personality.