Thousands of protestors throng Pakistan SC
Islamabad,
Apr
3:
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