By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS,
Islamabad : Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Thursday that his party will not rest until President Pervez Musharraf is ousted and more than 60 judges he sacked are reinstated.
“Today the person who sacked the judges and parliament is himself on his way out, his days are numbered and he will soon go,” Sharif told a charged gathering of lawyers and supporters of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Lahore.
Hundreds of lawyers, meanwhile, resumed what has been nicknamed their ‘Long March’ on the capital, demanding restoration of the sacked judges. They have announced they would stage a sit-in at Islamabad until the judges are reinstated in their posts.
Sharif assured the lawyers of his support in their struggle before they left for Islamabad in hundreds of vehicles. They are expected to reach the capital by noon Friday.
In an about-turn, the Islamabad authorities have removed all blockades at the entry points to the city and the containers that were earlier used for blocking the roads have been put together to form a stage from where sacked Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will address the lawyers.
The Islamabad administration has also installed hundreds of makeshift toilets for the lawyers who will be participating in the rally.
Sharif in his address called Musharraf a “big liar”, and said he was the person who had wasted eight vital years of the nation.
“He sacked my government and sent me into exile. He handcuffed me but now the poor chap is on his way out and there’s not a single person who can save him,” Sharif asserted.
Nawaz said his party would be hand-in-hand with the lawyers in their struggle for the restoration of the sacked judges.
“I am ashamed that lawyers had to struggle when a dictator was ruling the country and now they have to continue their struggle even in democratic rule,” said Sharif, criticizing ruling coalition leader Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) without naming it.
Musharraf had sacked more than 60 judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts after imposing an emergency Nov 3 last year. PPP chief Asif Ali Zardari is dithering on the issue, fearing the restored judges – and particularly Chaudhry – might reopen the 15-odd corruption cases against him and key leaders of his party.