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Lahore: A free judiciary is necessary for democracy to function in Pakistan, the country's deposed chief justice told protesting lawyers and activists who he said had started a revolution they had to complete.
Former top judge Iftikhar Chaudhry was addressing a cross-country rally to press the new government to restore him and other judges President Pervez Musharraf fired last year.
"If there's an independent judiciary the democratic system will work," Chaudhry told the crowd of hundreds in the city of Lahore, the half-way point of the rally, yesterday.
Lawyers have been at the forefront of a campaign against staunch US ally Musharraf since he tried to dismiss Chaudhry in March last year. Chaudhry and dozens of other judges were purged after Musharraf declared emergency rule in November.
The rally, dubbed a "long march" though the lawyers are in a motor convoy, set off from the southeastern city of Multan on Wednesday for Islamabad, where they are due to protest in front of the parliament building today.
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