February 11, 2002	Monday	Ziqa’ad 27, 1422

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TIMERGARA, Feb 10: Voicing opposition to the inclusion of serving army officers in the anti-terrorism courts, the District Bar Association, Timergara, has threatened that the lawyers community would not appear for cases that would be heard by army officers.

The DBA General Secretary, Riaz Ahmad Wardag, told newsmen here on Sunday the association in one of its meetings had taken strong exception to the decision that army officers would sit on the anti-terrorism courts.

The lawyers community, he added, considered the decision against the independence of judiciary.

Criticizing the statement of a government spokesman that the inclusion of army officers in the ATCs would provide security to the judges, Riaz Wardag termed the decision a step to usurp the independence of judiciary.

He demanded of the government to withdraw the decision in the best interests of Bench and Bar.

SHARIAT REGULATION: The lawyers community has also demanded of the NWFP governor to withdraw the Shariat Regulation Ordinance 1999 in force in the Malakand Division.

The lawyers said as the ordinance had been enforced on the demand of the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi, which was banned recently, therefore, the ordinance should also be declared void.

They said regular law should be enforced in the division as parallel laws had complicated the judicial process.