The legal fraternity on Friday called for trial of President Parvez Musharraf, saying that a safe exit or indemnity to his deeds would set a bad precedent in the country. Addressing media after the meeting of National Co-ordination Council of Lawyers, Aitzaz Ahsan, president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), said that the council had approved a resolution not to offer safe exit to the President.
President Musharraf had sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with 60 other judges and had detained them along with their families, the legal community opposes the safe exit, he added. Talking about reinstatement of sacked judges, he said that "judges must be reinstated within three days after impeachment process of the president is completed".
He said that "irrespective of our reservations, we would bank upon the commitment made by the leadership to reinstate the deposed judges after impeachment of the president". The leadership itself had realised the fact that its failure to reinstate deposed judges in accordance with the Murree Declaration had eroded confidence of the nation. It is hoped that ruling coalition would not repeat the same approach, he added.
Aitzaz said if the judges are not reinstated even after completion of impeachment process, "September 15 would be the last day of our patience. Afterwards, we would launch the movement which would go up to the extent of 'civil disobedience". "We will wait to dispel the impression that lawyers want confrontation with the government," he added.
He said that it was anticipated that the impeachment process would dawdle and the judicial issue would also face the same fate, but the way provincial assemblies have gone for disapproval of the president. "We are hopeful that the process would soon reach its end."
He said that the SCBA would hold an international lawyers convention from October 9 to 12 that would be attended by the lawyers and judges from every part of the world for supporting independence of judiciary in Pakistan.
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry would chair the inaugural session of the convention and all deposed judges who did not take oath under the PCO promulgated by President Pervaz Musharraf on November 3, last year, would also attend the convention, he added. The meeting was attended by the chairman of the PBC's executive committee Rasheed A. Rizvi, Tariq Mehmood, Hamid Khan and presidents of provincial bar associations.