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.