A large number of lawyers had gathered outside the Supreme Court on Monday to protest against the bill passed by Parliament to curtail the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan.

“When I arrived at the Supreme Court at 10:30am, around 1,500 lawyers were standing outside the court,” Aaj News correspondent Usman Muzaffar said. Our reporter had gone to give live updates on the developments inside the courtroom. He was inside the premises of the SC to give live updates.

The three-judge bench comprising CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar reserved the judgment on Monday after hearing all the parties, including the government, the PTI, the ECP and others.

The apex court would announce the decision on Tuesday.

The lawyers were chanting slogans in favour of the CJP and Constitution. When Muzaffar left the court at 4:30pm, he estimated that around 2,500 to 3,000 lawyers were protesting.

It was seen that members from the PML-N lawyers forum were trying to call their supporters but the efforts resulted in a vain attempt. According to Muzaffar, 30 to 40 members of the N-league were there.

It merits here to mention that fora started to establish when Iftikhar Chaudhry was the CJP. Later lawyers started to have their fora affiliated with political parties like the PTI lawyers forum and PML-N lawyers forum. But such groups unite when there is a threat to the legal fraternity.

A similar protest was seen outside the Supreme Court registry in Karachi. Protesters were holding placards in favour of the CJP.

“The imported government is also afraid of the lawyers who came out for the supremacy of the Constitution and law in Pakistan,” PTI leader Farrukh Habib said in a tweet.

He alleged that attempts were made to stop the demonstration by placing barriers, however despite that, a large number of lawyers have gathered outside the SC to express solidarity with the chief justice.

Our correspondent confirmed that the protesters in favour of CJP, including members from the PTI lawyers forum, were not allowed by the police to enter the court.