Long march receives a grim responce from Civil Society

Police baton-charged activists and held dozens into vans in Karachi, as a few hundred political workers defied the government in a mass protest. The Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Prof. Ghafoor Ahmad, Asadullah Bhutto and Mohammad Hussain Mehenti, president Karachi Bar Muhammad Ali Abbasi, general secretary Naeem Qureshi and many other political workers have been arrested from Karachi.

Earlier, a small number of lawyers gathered outside Sindh High Court (SHC) from where long march was kicked off. A rally of lawyers, headed by Rasheed A. Rizvi, left for Mazar-e-Quaid at 12pm from Sindh High Court Bar room. Police had sealed all the routes leading to City Court before the protestors arrived there.

Lawyers in black suits and opposition party activists carrying flags and punching their fists in the air marched in Karachi and Lahore, demanding that President Asif Ali Zardari reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry, the deposed Chief Justice of Supreme Court.

Around 1,000 lawyers, political workers and civil activists rallied in Lahore. The lawyers' leader, Aitzaz Ahsan, said people were determined to flout the government's invoking of a 19th century British law banning rallies.

"Today we have defied Section 144. It shows public morale is very high and they will reach Islamabad on March 16," said Eitzaz Ahsan who was kicked off by Tehreek e Istaklal on the charges of self elevation and defying party policies.

Hundreds of thousands of lawyers, opposition supporters and civil activists will join a four-day convoy on the 1,500 kilometers (940 miles) route from Karachi to Islamabad, where it is intended to arrive Monday claimed Mr. Ahsan.

Meanwhile, lawyers gathered in district court Quetta. The President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Ali Ahmad Kurd is leading the long march which began at 12pm from District Court. There was no obstacle from the provincial government and the march went on smoothly. The PML-N, Pashtoonkhwa Mili Awami Party, PTI and other political parties’ activists are participating in the long march.

The general public or civil Society as they are popularly known as, seems to have given a very luke warm response to the lawyer’s march which now seems to have been hijacked by PML (N) and is being used to put Shahbaz Sharif back in power.