Thousands of lawyers and political party workers called on President Pervez Musharraf to quit Wednesday as fresh protests erupted over his removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, witnesses and officials said. In Islamabad around 600 people including lawyers, party workers, women and students rallied outside the Supreme Court building after breaking their way through police cordons. They were later joined by some 300 party workers who raised anti-Musharraf slogans. The former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Hamid Gul joined the protest in his military jacket. “I wore this jacket today because we are fighting the war of Pakistan's survival,” Gul said. Tehreek-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan said that the demonstrators showed “immense courage” by breaking the police lines. “Our struggle will continue until the dictatorship ends,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Muthaida Majlise Amal, told the crowd. Asfandyar Wali Khan, the leader of the Awami National Party, told the rally after meeting Chaudhry that “he told us that if the government has courage, they should try me in an open court”. Around 3,000 lawyers in the eastern city of Lahore removed barricades erected by police to block a main road. They later staged a sit-in outside the provincial assembly building to press their demand for Chaudhry's reinstatement. Police fired tear gas shells and baton-charged a group of around 100 lawyers in the southwestern city of Quetta who wanted to stage a protest in front of the provincial governor's residence, lawyers and witnesses said. Some burnt their black jackets in protest. (First Posted @ 13:05 PST Updated @ 16:50 PST)
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