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Pakistan former PM Nawaz Sharif ends anti-govt long march

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, March 17, IRNA - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday announced that he has decided to end the anti-government ‘Long March’ after the Prime Minister reinstated the deposed chief justice and other judges.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Monday announced that the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and other judges have been reinstated and they will assume office on March 21.

Sharif led thousands of marchers from Lahore, the capital of the eastern Punjab, on Sunday and was scheduled to resume the march on Islamabad from Gujranwala, a main city some 60 kilometers from Lahore.

The march was aimed at mounting pressure on the government to restore the deposed Chief Justice and other judges suspended by President General Musharraf in emergency rule in 2007.

Nawaz Sharif announced end to ‘long march’ and welcomed the decision of the government.

“We have achieved our goal of the restoration of judges and supremacy of judiciary,” Nawaz Sharif told thousands of his supporters in Gujranwala.

“We will make the judiciary and parliament supreme,” Sharif said. He congratulated President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on the announcement.

Meanwhile President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Ali Ahmed Kurd also welcomed the restoration of the judges and said that the two-year struggle of lawyers, political parties and members of civil society produced results.