Judge galvanises support in Pakistani heartland

FAISALABAD, Pakistan, June 17 (Reuters) Thousands of lawyers and opposition activists greeted Pakistan's suspended chief justice as he travelled to the country's heartland on the weekend in a campaign against the president's move to sack him.

Supporters of suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry waited through the night as he took more than 20 hours to reach the industrial city of Faisalabad from the capital Islamabad, a journey that normally takes four hours.

Chaudhry and a convoy of lawyers in black business suits and opposition supporters waving flags from their cars made several stops in sun-baked farming towns of Punjab province on their way.

Opposition activists threw rose petals and mobbed Chaudhry's vehicle as he arrived in towns to meet groups of lawyers, reducing his progress to a crawl for hours on end.

The suspension of Chaudhry on March 9 by President Pervez Musharraf, who is also army chief, has whipped up a serious challenge to his rule, uniting lawyers defending the independence of the judiciary and the opposition eyeing elections around the end of the year.

Musharraf also hopes to get re-elected for a second five-year term.

Chaudhry, fighting for reinstatement through the Supreme Court, has steered clear of party politics and avoided public comments on the accusations of misconduct against him since his suspension.

today, he spoke of the need for justice for all.

''Peace can be ensured in a society if justice is available to all people without any discrimination of poor and rich,'' he told a big gathering of lawyers in Faisalabad who waited in the open through a rainy night for his arrival.

''If it happens then no one can suppress the people.'' Chaudhry's supporters, however, have minced no words and called for an end to military rule in a country run by generals for more than half the 60 years since its formation.

''WAR IS RAGING'' ''We have to ensure supremacy of justice and we have to get rid of generals ... The war is raging between General Musharraf and lawyers and people of Pakistan,'' Ali Ahmed Kurd, one of Chaudhry's lawyers, told the gathering.

About 40 people were killed in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists in Karachi last month when Chaudhry tried to visit but there has been no violence since.

Analysts believe Musharraf's motive for seeking Chaudhry's ouster was fear the judge would allow constitutional challenges against his plans to be re-elected, probably while still army chief, by parliament and provincial assemblies before they are dissolved for a general election.

Chaudhry's chief lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, met US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher last week, but US officials have confined comments on the crisis to hopes it would be resolved through the courts.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Boucher met Musharraf yesterday and offered broad support to the embattled US ally, while urging him to ensure elections were free and fair.

Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, has dismissed speculation he might impose a state of emergency to end the agitation and has vowed elections would be held on time. But the opposition is demanding he give up his post of army chief.

REUTERS SW KN1630