Policemen and lawyers clashed in Lahore today as the police, resorting to heavy teargas shelling and baton charge, injured dozens of protesters amid rallies by lawyers against the removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The police entered the high court premises in Lahore, where a convention of lawyers from Punjab was being held, and locked the main doors, apparently to prevent them from staging a demonstration on the city’s main boulevard, The Mall, after the convention.

Thousands of lawyers attending the convention protested against what the Punjab Bar Association president Bhwon Hasan described as the first-ever incident in the 100 year history of the high court.

While the police fired teargas shells, lawyers hurled back stones.

Several journalists and television cameramen were injured during the scuffle, which continued for more than two hours, till the acting Chief Justice intervened from Islamabad to direct the administration to vacate the court premises.

Later, lawyers, journalists, workers, political leaders and human rights activists took out a procession from the Lahore Press Club to the Punjab assembly chambers, chanting anti-Musharraf slogans.

In the southern Punjab town of Pakpattan, President Pervez Musharraf said at a public meeting that certain elements were fomenting trouble by exploiting the current judicial crisis to destabilise the government.

He also said that he respected the independence of the judiciary and had no grudge against Justice Iftikhar.

He described the attack on the Geo TV bureau by a Punjab police contingent as a conspiracy against him and vowed to punish the culprits.

He apologised to the television channel yesterday and ordered a judicial inquiry.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the Islamabad bureau of Geo TV and promised to punish the attackers, adding that he had suspended 18 policemen.

In Islamabad, the authorities released Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the Muttahida Majlise Amal, and another senior leader, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, but sent several of its lawmakers and activists to government guest houses from police lock-up for detention.

They were arrested while trying to reach the Supreme Court building yesterday ahead of Justice Iftikhar’s appearance before the Supreme Judicial Council.

Qazi later visited Justice Iftikhar at his residence and remained with him for about half an hour.

Opposition parties and human rights activists began a hurriedly called all-party conference in Islamabad later in the evening to chalk out a strategy for an agitation against Musharraf.

On top of the agenda was concern by certain leaders that some political parties were trying to take political mileage to advance their agenda.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan scoffed at the chorus of condemnation voiced by Musharraf and every government functionary as ridiculous.

The authorities removed all restrictions on suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry after the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) today declared him a free man.

The chairman of the SJC made it clear that there was no restraint on the movement of Justice Iftikhar and he could move freely and meet anybody he liked.

The authorities restored telephones at his residence, dismantled all barriers on roads leading to his residence since March 9 after his removal and hoisted the Pakistani flag atop his residence.

A directive by the council said in so far as security measures were concerned, this aspect was within the jurisdictional domain of the executive or the police.

The council directed the counsel for the referring authority to ensure that every step was taken in accordance with the law.

The SJC chairman, acting Chief Justice Javed Iqbal, also took notice of the violation of the council’s earlier order regarding free access of lawyers to Justice Chaudhry and issued fresh orders on the issue.

The attorney general had been directed to ensure the implementation of SJC directives in letter and 
spirit.

Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, leading the panel of advocates representing Justice Chaudhry, yesterday sought the adjournment of hearing on the application till March 26.

On the pretext of having not been able to meet Justice Chaudhry on March 13 due to hindrances created by security personnel deployed in front of the Chief Justice House.

The council also heard the viewpoint of the attorney general and the counsel for the referring authority on the issue.

The SJC adjourned the hearing for March 21 at 3 pm.

The defence apparently wanted to prolong preliminary proceedings till March 24, when second senior-most judge Rana Bhagwandas was due to return from leave abroad.

The defence attorney maintained that Justice Iftikhar remained the Chief Justice, but Bhagwandas was supposed to head the SJC since the Chief Justice had been facing a reference and propreity demanded that he should not hear his own case.

It was irrelevant whether he was present in the country or had gone abroad, said Ahsan.

In a related development, the acting Chief Justice had called for a report on the implementation of his directive to the government to take action against police officials who roughed up Justice Iftikhar and members of his family on March 13.

London, March 17
A British court has ordered an art storage company here to pay a hefty compensation of Rs 29.8 million for dumping the sculpture of Turner Prize-winning Indian artist Anish Kapoor, into a bin.

Swiss-based art collector Ofir Scheps, had entrusted the sculpture known as 'Hole and Vessel 11' to the company, Fine Arts Logistics, for storage but one of its employees thought it was a scrap and chucked it into a bin during a clear-out.

It was bright red in colour and made from polystyrene, cement, earth, acrylic and pigment.

A high court Judge yesterday ruled that the storage company is liable to pay full value of the work, bought by Scheps, as a wedding present.

The judgement represents an embarrassing defeat for the storage company which had argued in court that its liability was limited because such works would normally be independently insured.

The court heard that the work was created in 1984 by Kapoor, who won the Turner Prize in 1991.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Teare said: "It is not possible for me to describe it. One expert described it as a sensuous and sexy, the other as clumsy and somewhat absurd.

"It was made during Kapoor's transitional phase when he was moving away from an exploration of the male/female dichotomy towards an exploration of the void." — PTI

Islamabad, March 17
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, has said Pakistan was ready to reverse the course of talks with India and demonstrate flexibility to resolve the longstanding Jammu and Kashmir issue, if other stakeholders reciprocated.

''The ongoing peace process has generated goodwill and raised the level of expectation of people on both sides,'' The Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying at the international Kashmir conference in Islamabad.

He maintained that this provided the two countries with a historic opportunity to change from conflict management to conflict resolution by settling the six decades old Jammu and Kashmir issue.

''We must seize the moment and create a bright future for our coming generations.'' With the peace process reaching its logical culmination, Jammu and Kashmir will become a symbol of peace, tranquillity and fraternity in South Asia, the Prime Minister said.

He added that this would unleash the vast potential of the two countries and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, not just for Pakistan and India but for the whole of South Asia.

He observed that the peace process would see ups and downs and there would also be attempts to derail the process.

''However, we must all remain steadfast and committed to our objective of sustainable peace in South Asia.'' The Kashmir dispute had cast a long dark shadow over South Asia for nearly sixty years, he said, adding that it was the core issue between India and Pakistan and its resolution could change the destiny of over a billion people in the region. — UNI