Musharraf and Justice Chaudhry will address separate rallies to demonstrate their public support amid official warning to the judge not to take the trip to Karachi.
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and suspended Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry will address separate rallies on Saturday to demonstrate their public support amid official warning to the judge not to take the trip to Karachi, citing fear of attacks on him in the tension-gripped city where a security guard was shot dead today.
Musharraf would address, what the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q leaders claimed, a "massive public rally" in front of Parliament in capital Islamabad, while the ruling coalition ally Muthahida Quami Movement (MQM) geared up to hold a big demonstration in Karachi in his support.
Tension prevailed in Karachi on the eve the Chaudhry meeting and the MQM counter-rally with the provincial government deploying around 12,000 para-military and police personnel to maintain peace.
"There will be around 12,000 security personal deployed in different parts of the city and no one would be allowed to violate the law," Sindh Home Minister Waseem Akhtar said.
A security guard, Ameer Khan (22), was killed today as a group of people, who were trying to forcibly shut shops on the route to be used by Chaudhry, shot him.
Opposition parties, including the Mutthaida Majlis Amal (MMA) and Peoples Party, claimed that Police have picked up some 1,100 of their workers since yesterday in a massive crackdown. Akhtar denied this, but a police officer, Azhar Farooqi, said about 100 people have been detained.
The two pro-government rallies were planned to counter expected massive public response to Chaudhry, who last weekend drew huge crowds during his road travel from Islamabad to Lahore where he addressed a lawyers' convention.
Chaudhry was expected to receive similar public reception during his visit to Karachi on Saturday where the opposition parties and the lawyers' organisations planned to take him in a procession from the airport to the meeting venue.
The Sindh High Court today asked the provincial government, in which MQM was a party, to arrange proper security for Chaudhry on Saturday.
The order followed an official letter from Sindh government to Supreme Court asking Chaudhry to put off his visit due to fear of violence. The local government has also claimed to have arrested 12 people with arms who planned to prevent the CJP's rally.
Chaudhry's lawyers brushed aside possibility of any change in the plan. His lawyer and retired judge Tariq Mehmood said the Sindh High Court Bar gathering which Chaudhry would address was a "purely non-political event" and there should be "no cause of concern to any political party".
"To avoid any clash in Karachi where the MQM is also holding a rally, he will go straight to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mausoleum to salute the great leader who also happened to be a lawyer by profession," Mehmood said.
Ahead of Chaudhry's visit, the Karachi house of his defence lawyer Munir A Malik was sprayed with bullets two days ago, though no one was hurt in the incident.
Chaudhry, who will fly to Karachi on Saturday morning, would first head to Jinnah's mausoleum, from where, interestingly, MQM plans to start its procession.
MQM leader Farooq Sattar said the procession would start tomorrow noon from the mausoleum and terminate at the Tibet Centre. Rallies of people from other areas of Sindh would join the main rally in the city, he said.
"It is the only route for them and they will reach the venue via the National Highway and Share-e-Faisal to join the main rally," which was against those who were "exploiting the Chief Justice issue to destabilise the government," Sattar said ruling out the possibility of changing the route.
Government sources said the problem confronting the security forces was that the Chief Justice's motorcade procession route and that of the MQM workers was the same.
Former Law Minister and human rights activist Iqbal Haider said there were fears of clashes between MQM workers and lawyers and opposition party activists.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a central PPP leader, said "If anything happens tomorrow, the responsibility will be on government."
Public transporters and fuelling stations started closing their businesses since this evening in fear of impending violence. Traffic was thin in the city, where all educational institutions will remain closed tomorrow on government order.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister of Punjab province Chaudhry Pervez Elahi said the federal government is considering filing another reference against Chaudhry.
"The legal team of the President are pondering overfilling another reference against the Chief Justice," Elahi said.
He said it does not suit a Chief Justice to proceed in processions under the flags of opposition parties. "There is no such example in the world," he added.
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