country protest march launched by lawyers and some political parties Wednesday started from Multan en route to Islamabad via Lahore to put pressure on parliament to restore nearly sixty Supreme Court and High Court judges, who were dismissed from service on Nov. 3, 2007. Former prime pinister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif declared that he would participate in the “long march” in Lahore on Thursday. The long marchers plan to reach in front of the parliament building Islamabad where they will stage a sit-in to press their demand. PML-N, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf fully support the protest march and its leaders and workers are taking part in it. Lawyers' chief leader Aitzaz Ahsan, who is president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry were present in Multan on the occasion of the launch of the long march. There were around 2,000 people when the protest started in the scorching heat. Chaudhry said the lawyers' movement has entered a critical phase. He said the journey is thorny and lengthy but the time is short. He believed that the movement would be successful to achieve its objectives. Nawaz Sharif cut short his stay in London where he was in connection with his wife's medical treatment and flew into Islamabad Wednesday morning. After a meeting of his party, he told the reporters that the PML-N had made a commitment with the nation to play its role for the restoration of the sacked justices and to get rid of President Pervez Musharraf. He said people of Pakistan voted in the Feb. 18 elections to oust Musharraf and restore the judges so that the rule of law returned to Pakistan. Sharif said his party fully supports the march and appealed to the people to be part of it because it would bring a peaceful revolution and rid Pakistan of dictatorship. The PML-N chief said he did not want to give a Pakistan to the future generations that has dictatorial rule where one man can sack parliament, terminate judges and dub an elected prime minister as a plane hijacker. He said the present long march was meant to make Pakistan secure, prosperous and strengthened. He said it was for the lawyers to decide for how long they want to keep the sit-in before the parliament building, but added that the movement would continue till the resignation of Musharraf. Sharif urged the people to keep the long march peaceful and said this was the acknowledge method to press a demand in democratic countries __
