Tens of thousands of people gave Pakistan's sacked top judge a resounding welcome yesterday as he took his protest to Lahore for the first time since he was fired by President Pervez Musharraf.
Supporters waited overnight on the lawns of the Lahore High Court premises as former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry arrived to address lawyers waging a campaign for his reinstatement.
En route from Islamabad, Chaudhry was cheered by large crowds including lawyers, political party workers and students who showered fresh rose petals on his convoy of vehicles.
Small towns and cities reverberated to chants of "Justice for chief justice."
It was the biggest show of support for Chaudhry since he was sacked by Musharraf on March 9 over misconduct charges, his counsel Aitzaz Ahsan told the gathering.
"Tens of thousands people came for his reception, this is a referendum against Musharraf," Ahsan told the crowd in Lahore. "This reception is historic and it will be remembered in the country for many years."
INQUIRY PANEL
Musharraf's decision to suspend Chaudhry sparked uproar from opposition parties, who called it an attempt to intimidate the judiciary.
Musharraf has appointed a five-judge panel to hold an inquiry into the charges.
The panel, called the Supreme Judicial Council, adjourned proceedings on Thursday until Wednesday after lawyers concluded arguments about the validity and composition of the council.
Protest rallies have been held regularly, and lawyers boycotted court on each hearing of the panel in Islamabad to demand Chaudhry's reinstatement.
The government had asked him not to travel by road to Lahore, citing the security situation.
Around 7,000 policemen and security officials were deployed for the Lahore rally.
SLOW JOURNEY
The trip from Islamabad to Lahore normally takes four hours, but with supporters crowding to greet him along the route, it took Chaudhry more than 20 hours.
Speaking in the compound of the Lahore High Court to thousands of lawyers, 17 of Punjab Province's 23 judges, and opposition activists gathered outside on the street, Chaudhry made no direct references either to Musharraf or to his government.
But his message was clear. He told his cheering supporters that dictatorship was a thing of the past and states that ignored the rule of law and basic rights got destroyed.
"Nations and states which are based on dictatorship instead of the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law and protection of basic rights get destroyed," Chaudhry said.
An exhausted-looking Chaudhry, 58, made an open-air address in the compound of the provincial high court. His speech was carried live on private television stations.
`PAY A PRICE'
"The idea of dictatorship and collective responsibility are over," he said. "They are chapters from the past and those nations which don't learn lessons from the past and repeat those mistakes, they have to pay a price."
"Basic human rights are a backbone in the formation of a civilized society," said Chaudhry, who added that he had never been involved in politics.
Lahore is capital of Punjab, the country's richest and most populous province and a traditional establishment stronghold.
POLITICAL NERVE CENTER
The city is generally considered the political nerve center of the country and yesterday's enthusiastic and tumultuous reception there will be seen as evidence of his backing and a clear sign to authorities that their efforts to contain the crisis were failing, observers said.
"I haven't seen anything like this since 1986 when Benazir returned," said Fakhr Imam, a former National Assembly speaker and a leader of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS