LAHORE, July 6: Lawyers would boycott courts across the country on July 15 to protest against the government’s proposed constitutional package, a conference of the Bar representatives resolved on Saturday.

The conference was organized by the Lahore High Court Bar Association to discuss the package and the imposition of professional tax and General Sales Tax on their services. It unanimously condemned the amendments and the taxes.

The Pakistan Bar Council was requested to convene an all parties conference in order to launch a concerted campaign against the package, which was “aimed at perpetuating military hold over the civil society”. The PBC is scheduled to meet in Islamabad on July 13 to consider the request.

The conference was held at the LHCBA’s Karachi Shuhada Hall and was jointly presided over by PBC Vice-Chairman Chaudhry Ashraf Wahla, PBC Executive Committee Chairman Abdul Haleem Pirzada, Supreme Court Bar Association President Hamid Khan and LHCBA President Chaudhry Muzammil Khan, who conducted the proceedings.

A copy of the proposed amendments was burnt by Balochistan Bar Council Vice-Chairman Ali Ahmad Kurd at the end of the deliberations spread over four hours.

At the motion of Punjab Bar Council member Khawar Mahmood Khatana, the participants decided to shun meetings with the government functionaries in their capacity as representatives of the Bar. Council Vice-Chairman Ramzan Chaudhry denied executive member Zafar Iqbal Kalanuri’s allegation that he had met Governor Maqbool Khalid to strike a deal.

Criticizing the National Reconstruction Bureau, the conference demanded an immediate withdrawal of the amendment package and appointment of an independent election commission to hold free, fair and transparent elections. Constitutional amendments were the exclusive domain of parliament. The Political Parties (amendment) Order was also criticized as an attempt to suppress anti-government parties.

The proposed amendments, it said, had reportedly been drafted at a very high cost to the public exchequer, particularly on account of hefty payments made to foreign legal experts. It demanded that the entire financial outlay on the exercise be made public.

The conference feared the amendments would result in an “oppressive dictatorial presidential system without the benefit of a directly elected president”. The package amounted to rewriting the Constitution in violation of the Supreme Court judgment in Zafar Ali Shah’s case. It impinged on the federal parliamentary character of the Constitution, the conference said.

Among the participant were PBC members Mohammad Akram Sheikh, Latif Khan Khosa, Farooq H. Naik, Abdur Rehman Ansari and Raja Mahmood Akhtar; Punjab Bar Council members Khadim Husain Qaiser, Pervez Inayat Malik, Arif Chaudhry, Raja Shafqat Abbasi and Chaudhry Ahsan Bhoon; LHCBA Secretary Shahid Mahmood Bhatti and other office-bearers; Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan Bar representatives; and LBA president Nisar Ali Kausar.