Islamabad: Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, released after over four months of house arrest, will travel to his hometown Quetta to launch a new campaign for the independence of the judiciary.
Chaudhry, sacked and detained by President Pervez Musharraf during last year's emergency, was freed by the new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani minutes after he was elected by the National Assembly.
Chaudhry will be received in Quetta by lawyers and members of civil society, Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan said today.
Chaudhry will address the Balochistan High Court Bar Association on March 31, his first public engagement since he was detained on November 3.
Ahsan and other leaders of the lawyers movement against Musharraf held a meeting with Chaudhry earlier in the day.
After staying in Quetta for two to three days, Chaudhry will go to Sukkur to address the bar association there. He will also visit other cities to thank the lawyer community for campaigning for the release of the deposed judges and to address bar associations.
Ali Ahmed Kurd, another top leader of the lawyers movement who was detained during the emergency, said Musharraf would be mistaken if he thought the deposed Chief Justice would remain confined to his residence after his release.
Chaudhry, Kurd said, would start his activities after resting for a few days. The new coalition formed by the PPP and PML-N had already committed itself to reinstating the deposed judges within 30 days of coming to power, he noted.
The lawyers did not want to pressure the coalition or parliament on this issue but they would take to the streets if there was any "conspiracy" to prevent the reinstatement of the judges, Kurd said.
The parliament has the right to reinstate the judges. "The lawyers do not care from where pressure and formulas are coming. We only want the peaceful restoration of the deposed judges. The country's 160 million people are with us and no one will stop us from restoring the judiciary," he said.
