The lawyers of the capital, who played a significant role in the movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Ifthikar Muhammad Chaudhry and the other judges, took to streets on Monday against the PPP-led government for locking horns with the judiciary.
Dozens of Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHBA) members staged a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court building to register their protest against the government for not complying with the court orders.
The black coats vowed to resist disobedience of the SC verdict on corruption cases and announced they would continue their support for the supremacy of the law.
The protesting lawyers were of the view that they would not allow the government to hamper the implementation of the SC orders. “If the government does not implement the SC verdicts, we will start the second phase of our movement for the supremacy of law,” said IHCBA President Chaudhry Ashraf Gujjar, while addressing the lawyers.
Amid full-throat slogans against the government and in favour of the SC chief justice, the IHCBA president said the ruling PPP was worried about some important cases of corruption in which a number of politicians were involved.
Later, talking to Pakistan Today, Ashraf Gujjar alleged the government had been following the advice of former law minister Babar Awan for not complying with the court orders.
“In the first phase, we struggled for the restoration of the judges and independence of the judiciary and now we are going to start the second phase of our struggle for the implementation of the Supreme Court verdicts,” said Advocate Naseer Bhutta.
The lawyers demanded the government take measures to bring back the looted money from foreign banks.
The recent clash between the Supreme Court and the government started on July 26, 2011, when the government made Establishment Secretary Sohil Ahmed officer on special duty (OSD) after he issued a notification, transferring Gilgit-Baltistan IGP Hussain Asghar and posting him as FIA director to investigate the Hajj scam.
