Lawyers up pressure on Pakistan coalition over judges

LAHORE (Reuters) - Leaders of a Pakistani lawyers' movement served notice to the new coalition government it would hold a major protest on June 10 to champion the restoration of judges dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf last November.

"It is going to be a major milestone. It has been decided with a heavy majority to hold the long march," Aitzaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told a news conference after a meeting of lawyers in the eastern city of Lahore.

Saad Rehman, a senior lawyer, said the date was set for June 10, but the route had still to be decided.

The lawyers movement coined the term "long march" for the motor processions from city to city organized last year to support chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the judge who became a cause celebre by resisting pressure from Musharraf to resign.

Chaudhry and fellow judges were later dismissed when Musharraf invoked emergency rule on November 3 to purge the courts, because he feared they could rule unlawful his own re-election in October by the outgoing parliament while still army chief.

"All of the lawyers' abilities and energy will be dedicated to this march now," said Ahsan, who is at odds with the leadership of his own Pakistan People's Party (PPP), heading the coalition, over its foot-dragging over the judges.

The coalition is already in danger of breaking up over the issue after the second largest party in the alliance withdrew its members from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's cabinet, a little over six weeks after being sworn in.

Gilani has refused to accept the resignations from the nine ministers belonging to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML-N.

The PML-N has said it would continue to support Gilani's government on an issue by issue basis, but it has also backed the lawyers' plans to begin agitating.  Continued...