More judges resign in Pakistan

New Delhi: The crisis in Pakistan judiciary continues with seven judges from Sindh and Punjab quitting their posts.

Hundreds of lawyers demonstrated against President Pervez Musharraf’s controversial removal of the country’s chief justice, deepening the political mess.

The lawyers warned their agitation will continue unless Musharraf resigns.

The Opposition MMA alliance of Islamic parties has also called for a demonstration outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday when Chaudhary will appear before the special judicial council.

A judge of the Lahore High Court, Justice Jawad S Kwaja, wrote a letter to Musharraf saying he cannot perform his duties as a judge in an environment where a crackdown was unleashed on the judiciary.

However, on Monday Musharraf admitted committing mistakes on the issue but he ruled out emergency or deployment of army to tackle the situation.

"The general elections will be held on time and neither emergency will be clamped nor the army will be called," PTI quoted Musharraf as saying.

Contrary to reports that he was trying to distance himself from the decision to suspend Chief Justice, Musharraf said he was duty-bound to take action on a reference sent by the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile Pakistan government has lifted the ban it had imposed on a chat show programme of Geo TV—the channel that faced assault by Pak police attempting to stop channel’s coverage of the riotous situation prevailing outside country’s apex court on Saturday.

Interestingly Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf would appear on the chat show broadcast Monday night. The ban on Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath (Today with Kamran Khan) hosted by Geo's Senior Editor Kamran Khan was imposed on March 15 as the programme continuously focused on the crisis arising out of the suspension of Chaudhry.

Musharraf suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9 over unspecified allegations that he had abused his authority and now faces a growing current of public resentment over the army’s dominant role in Pakistan.

(With agency inputs)