By IANS
Lahore : Pakistan’s suspended top judge, received by thousands milling the streets, took 12 hours to reach here early Sunday, indicating his popularity as he and the nation await the Supreme Court’s verdict in his case next week.
Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry has challenged his March 9 suspension on charge of misusing his office to get a favoured posting for his son.
The action by President Pervez Musharraf has triggered a nationwide furore. A full bench of the apex court has asked both parties to wind up the arguments and await a verdict Friday.
Lahore witnessed scenes of tumultuous welcome accorded to Chaudhry at the end of a week that saw the nation battling conflicting sentiments in the wake of the Lal Masjid operations in Islamabad.
About 100 people died in the operations to evict the mosque’s clergy and hundreds of students, boys and girls, as well as armed militants having links with Al Qaida.
The Daily Times, filing reports at 2.30 a.m. Sunday, said political parties cutting across ideological lines joined to welcome Chaudhry’s motorcade that began 12 hours earlier at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, where he arrived from Islamabad.
Flag-waving, slogan-shouting leaders and cadres represented the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing Islami Jamiat Talaba and various lawyers’ and civil society groups.
They had set up camps along the Lahore Mall, in the heart of the city, to receive Chaudhry before the main venue – the district court complex – where the Lahore District Bar Association had arranged a reception for him.
The Lahore Bar Association arranged 10,000 seats for the participants at the court’s parking area. Lawyers from various districts in the province thronged the venue. Punjab is ruled by the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim league (Qaid).