Thousands of protestors throng Pakistan Supreme Court

Islamabad, Apr 3 (UNI) Thousands of protestors belonging to Pakistan's leading opposition parties as well as lawyers gathered in front of the Supreme Court here as the country's top suspended judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry appeared before the Supreme Judicial Council for the third time.

Waving flags of the six-party Islamic opposition alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (N) of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the protestors chanted slogans of ''Go Musharraf Go'' and ''Musharraf is the pet dog of the United States'', as Mr Chaudhry arrived at the Supreme Court building.

However, no untoward incident took place and a heavy contingent of police remained deployed outside the apex court's building.

The government had detained MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and other alliance leaders yesterday. But he defied the ban and addressed protestors by telephone. Addressing the rally most of the opposition leaders termed the expression of solidarity with the chief justice by people as the decline in the government's popularity.

The council, headed by acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas, heard lawyers of Justice Chaudhry on open trial and reserved its judgement.

''It is now up to the council to decide as to when it would like to announce the judgement,'' one of the counsels for Justice Chaudhry, Tariq Mehmud told mediapersons after the meeting.

The SJC, hearing a presidential reference of misconduct and misuse of authority by Justice Chaudhry, will now meet on April 13.

UNI