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Mammoth reception to Chaudhary

Nirupama Subramanian

Compared with Benazir's return in 1986

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's ousted Chief Justice Ifthikhar Chaudhary arrived in Lahore on Sunday morning, a full 26 hours after he set out on a journey that threw a plain challenge to President Pervez Musharraf in the most politically influential Punjab province.

Mr. Chaudhary and his motorcade spent the night on the highway being feted all along the Grand Trunk Road from the capital to their destination. By the time the procession reached Lahore, it was kilometres long.

Thousands of people waited overnight in Lahore to receive him, some going home for a few hours sleep and coming back out again to throng the streets when he arrived, barely allowing it to inch its way to the High Court.

The roads were a sea of Opposition party flags, with Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) dominating the show. The overwhelming reception to the ousted Chief Justice has invited comparison with Benazir Bhutto's triumphant return to Pakistan in 1986. In the intervening decades, the country has not witnessed an anti-government agitation that has held so long or widened so perceptibly despite having no clear political leadership or direction.

Mr. Chaudhary journeyed to Lahore to address the city Bar Association, but the massive crowd that gathered inside and around the High Court was not just an audience of lawyers. It included ordinary people aside from workers of Opposition parties, who stood in the summer morning's sun to catch a glimpse of Mr. Chaudhary and listen to what he had to say. As many as 17 of Lahore High Court's 31 judges were also present, a solid show of support by the Punjab judiciary for the Chief Justice.

As in his earlier speeches at bar associations in Sindh and in Peshawar, Mr. Chaudhary made no mention of the reference against him that has triggered Pakistan's biggest agitation in recent years and Gen. Musharraf's most serious political crisis. Instead, his address was an indirect commentary on the situation in the country. He spoke about nation building and governance through rule of law, the sanctity of the Constitution and human rights, how nations destroyed themselves by ignoring these fundamentals, and the need to learn from history.

Mr. Chaudhary's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, who is a parliamentarian of the Pakistan People's Party, described the procession as a "26-hour referendum" against the regime. "This was not the referendum that you saw in 2002 when angels voted. This was a referendum in which people participated and in which they have spoken," he said, alluding to the controversial referendum in which Gen. Musharraf was elected President.

With the success of his journey into Punjab, the legal community is already readying to throw the Government another challenge, with an address by Mr. Chaudhary at the Karachi Bar Association later this month.

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