Lawyers, mull struggle against military rule in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: After a successful movement aimed at reinstatement of the Chief Justice, lawyers in Pakistan are all set to launch a struggle for restoration of democracy in the Islamic nation.

"The movement of the legal fraternity is not merely for reinstating some individual, rather it is aimed at complete restoration of the 1973 Constitution in the country," 'The News' reported today, quoting President of the Pakistan Bar Council Munir A Malik as saying here.

Though the presidential spokesperson has reassured that Pervez Musharraf would doff his military uniform by the end of this year, Munir said, the second phase of the movement for independence of judiciary would continue till the end of dictatorship in the country.

Demanding Musharraf's resignation after the historic Supreme Court judgement restoring Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry, he said it was time for intellectuals of the country to come forward and ask the Army to restrict its role to the limits as defined in the Constitution.

The second phase, to be called 'Go Musharraf Go', would definitely restrict the Army from interfering in politics and commercial activities, the daily quoted other senior lawyers leading the movement as saying.

"As a result of our movement, the President will have to step down from both the positions he is currently holding unconstitutionally," lawyer Syed Tayyab Shah said.