And in Pakistan, hundreds of lawyers protested across the country on Thursday against General Pervez Musharraf’s purge of the judiciary. Lawyers have spearheaded protests against Musharraf since he tried to sack the Chief Justice in March and then imposed emergency rule in November.
Members of the Islamabad Bar Association announced they were cutting their work day in half indefinitely until Musharraf reinstates a host of judges he deposed to fend off challenges to his reelection. Meanwhile, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was prevented by police from meeting deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who is under house arrest in Islamabad. Sharif told his supporters that the entire nation would stand behind the judges.