The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) committee has condemned PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari for betraying the nation and playing with feelings of 16 million people, claiming Zardari has put the judges' issue on back burner at the behest of America and Pervez Musharraf.
LHCBA President Anwar Kamal said the joint working committee had been formed with a view to make better co-ordination with all bar associations at district level. The decision was taken in a meeting in which the President LHCBA Anwar Kamal and its Secretary Rana Asadullah, president Multan LHCBA Mahmood Ashraf Khan, its secretary Muhammad Rana Naveed, the president Bahawalpur LHCBA Muhammad Aslam Chinter its secretary Muhammad Umair Hassan and the secretary Rawalpindi LHCBA Malik Muhammad Siddiqu Awan.
While addressing a press conference they said, "ball is still in Zardari's court". They would not accept any new deadline for judges' reinstatement rather they would speed up their movement. In addition, as a first step of this the members of joint working committee would not appear before PCO judges. They pointed out that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had time and he was ready to issue executive order the movement said.
Kamal will be the first chairman of the committee named as LHC Joint Working Committee for a period of three months while other presidents of three benches would assume the charge on rotation basis for the same period.
They lauded PML-N role it was playing for reinstatement of judges despite the fact that there were hell of differences in lawyers and political parties' struggle. They said that they are purely fighting a constitutional war while political parties have certain compulsions.
The body said the component parties of APDM were also standing by the lawyers as they were fully supporting lawyers' struggle for independence of judiciary. 'We would not retrieve an inch from our stand and keep movement alive till the restoration of judges to their November 2 position', they added. They made it clear that they would not accept PCO judges because they had shown their allegiance to a dictator by taking oath under PCO.
They also called for convening meeting of national action committee that they said had not been held for some time. They said it was also decided in the meeting that all sections of society including transporters, traders, students and labour organisations would be consulted to evolve future strategy. They said for this purpose the committee would hold lawyers' conventions at district level and first of these would be arranged at Rawalpindi the date of which would be announced in two days.
They said the lawyers had constituted a new chapter of sacrifices in history book but before starting the next and the toughest phase of their movement, they need better co-ordination and organisation among them. In the end, they appreciated media role saying that they would strongly resist if curbs were put on media.