Sacked CJ's lawyer to sue Musharraf

A senior defence lawyer for Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry has said he would sue President Pervez Musharraf seeking damages to the tune of Rs 2 billion for 'falsely' blaming him and his high-profile client for the recent violence in Karachi that left over 40 people dead.

In a statement in Islamabad, Aitezaz Ahesan, the defence counsel for suspended judge, said he would file a Rs 2 billion suit in a court against Musharraf for libel, recover the amount from the President's personal assets and estate, and then donate the same to the people of Karachi to help heal their wounds.

Ahesan said he and Chaudhry have been 'falsely' blamed by Musharraf for the Karachi carnage. The defence lawyer said he and Chaudhry had travelled from Peshawar to Lahore through several large and densely populated towns without witnessing any violence and at least '10 million people came out' to welcome the suspended Chief Justice along the entire route.

'Not a blade of grass was broken,' Ahesan said.

Though all the opposition workers joined the welcoming crowds, there was

no violence and no one resisted.

'These visits, along with the visits to Sukkur and Hyderabad, were on the invitation of Bar associations but when we arrived at Karachi Airport on May 12 at the invitation of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, we learnt that four people had already been shot dead in various parts of the city,' he said.

Ahesan said their hosts were not at the Karachi airport because the Sindh government had blocked all roads leading there with huge containers.

'An attempt was made by the administration to kidnap the Chief Justice and then a hostile MQM rally arrived at the airport and blocked the exit,' he alleged.

Karachi, he said, needed a healing hand not recriminations and false allegations.

Ahesan said the MQM government should admit its fault and mal-intent and declare now that it would desist from any counter rally or resistance when the suspended Chief Justice is next invited to Karachi by the Bar association.

'Let those who do not want to greet him exercise their free choice of not doing so. Let there be no coercion or bitterness. Let there be peace. Let the confidence of Karachi, the premier city of Pakistan, be restored,' he said.