Up to 200 lawyers including Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Khurd, Ramzan Chaudhry, Ehan Raza Pasha, Muhammad Azhar Saddiqui, Jehanzaib Khan, Tanvir Randhawa and Abdur Rashid Qureshi will withdraw nomination papers from all over Pakistan, protesting to boycott the general elections and support their collegues fighting for the reinstatement of the judges and the independence of judiciary.
Punjab Bar Council Vice Chairman Amjad Javed Warriach, Pakistan Bar Council member Chaudry Ramazan, Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Javed Amin Chaudhry and Vice President Ghulam Nabi Bhatti attended a joint press conference, saying people participating in the elections were with Pervez Musharraf and that they were playing around with the nation and harming the lawyers' struggle.
They accused the government of planning to engineer the elections, saying they believe President Musharraf would never hold free, fair and impartial elections. They also said they hoped political parties would also boycott the elections.
They said President Musharraf terminated the judges only to get favourable election results and added that the judges under PCO giving decisions of the government backed candidates. They said judges who had taken oath under PCO committed contempt of Supreme Court orders declaring emergency null and void. They asked the people of Pakistan to condemn the judges who had taken oath under PCO.
They said lawyers did not accept the judges who had taken oath under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). On a question they also condemned the statement of Benazir Bhuttoo for declaring not to support the judges who have been terminated. They warned that the bar would act against those lawyers refusing to withdraw their nomination papers.
Comments
Comments are closed.