Deposed Pakistan judge urges protests

Source: ap

Deposed Pakistan judge urges protests

By ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide Tuesday to defy baton-wielding police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.

"Go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice," Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is under virtual house arrest in Islamabad, told lawyers by mobile phone. "Don't be afraid. God will help us and the day will come when you'll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time."
.........

An Associated Press reporter saw at least three lawyers were wounded, two bleeding from the head, and three police also were hurt by bricks flung by lawyers.

The clashes marked the second day of unrest since Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared the emergency. He suspended the constitution, ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent. Thousands of people have been rounded up and thrown in jail.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_re_as/pakistan;_ylt=AugTzCJTtuiye8JcLJSXZcys0NUE

Source: CNN International

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Baton-wielding police fought with lawyers outside courthouses in Islamabad and Lahore again Tuesday, arresting dozens more as they enforced Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on judicial activism.
Three days after Musharraf suspended the constitution and declared a state of emergency, Pakistan's judicial system is in lockdown, with thousands of lawyers jailed and many judges detained in their homes.

.....

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry -- fired by Musharraf Saturday -- in a phone call to a gathering of lawyers urged them to go to "every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice." .....
Opposition leaders, however, suggested the judicial activism Musharraf was really targeting was an expected Supreme Court ruling that would bar him from another term as Pakistan's president.


About 3,000 Pakistani lawyers, rounded up since Saturday, sit in jails across the country with no courts operating to which they can seek release. Pakistan has an estimated 12,000 lawyers.
Police earned cash bonuses for beating and arresting hundreds of lawyers Monday who had gathered outside of Lahore's courthouse, police sources said.


Chief Justice Chaudhry, speaking by phone to lawyers gathered in Islamabad Tuesday, told them to carry the message of sacrifice.
"Don't be afraid of anything," Chaudhry said. "God will help us and the day will come when you'll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time."
Chaudhry's remarks were interrupted when Islamabad's cell phone system suddenly died. There has been no way to confirm the disruption was planned by police.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/06/pakistan.crisis/?iref=mpstoryview