Lahore: Pakistan's influential lawyers movement has set the August 14 deadline for the PPP-led government to restore the judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf during last year's emergency rule, else it will intensify its protests across the country paralysing courts.

If the government fails to meet the deadline, the legal fraternity will step up its protests, block courtrooms more vigorously, organise countrywide marches to Islamabad, court arrest and resort to civil disobedience, said a resolution adopted at a conference of various lawyers organisations.

The Pakistan Bar Council will also decide on two more suggestions for protests locking courtrooms and disrupting traffic across the country. The conference, held here yesterday, was attended by representatives of different organisations, including Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Vice Chairman Saidur Rehman and PBC Executive Committee Chairman Rasheed A Rizvi.

The PML-N, which pulled its ministers out of the PPP-led government over the failure to reinstate the deposed judges, today said it would back the lawyers demand for the judges to be restored to their former positions.

The lawyers movement had last month organised a "long march" to Islamabad to press for the reinstatement of the deposed judges. Though thousands of people joined a rally held near the Parliament at the end of the long march, the government did not respond to the demands of the lawyers.
Source : PTI