ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has said that the judges of the superior courts should be administered fresh oath under the Constitution to avoid a crisis.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference here on Thursday, the president of the SCBA, Hamid Khan, said that the judges should be administered fresh oath as they had been working under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) for the past three years.

Refuting the government’s argument that in the existence of “deeming clause” in the Legal Framework Order (LFO) there was no need for fresh oath, the SCBA president claimed that there could not be a “deeming clause” with regard to oath.

Supporting his claim Mr Khan said that if the argument of “deeming clause” was acceptable than why the judges were administered oath under the PCO, and why other public office holders had to take oath.

He said that oath was always administered and it could not be avoided on the pretext of “deeming clause”.

Mr Khan was flanked by SCBA secretary Sahibzada Anwar Hameed, finance secretary Mirza Sadaqat, and additional secretary Zaheer Ahmad Qadri.

The Bar leaders criticized the piecemeal restoration of the Constitution.”Constitution being an organic whole could not partially be restored or suspended,” they said.

The SCBA leaders said that Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad administered oath to President Gen Pervez Musharraf, despite a decision by the Supreme Court that the parliament would decide about the consequences of referendum.

They said that the chief justice himself had taken oath under the PCO, and how could he administer oath to the president under the Constitution.

Mr Khan said that his association condemned the act of keeping the Article 63A of the Constitution in abeyance to encourage the legislators to defect from their parties.

He said that the Bar was steadfast to its stance that “agitating any matter of constitutional importance before the judiciary in its present composition was futile exercise as judiciary has ceased to be independent”.

The SCBA president said that the judiciary after accepting three-year extension in the service, had become the beneficiary party and could not hear the case. “We again demand that judges should not accept the extension,” he said.

The Bar leaders said that the country’s sovereignty had been undermined by allowing the foreign forces to operate in Pakistan. They said that citizens were picked by the foreign agencies on mere suspicions and the government was totally helpless.

They asked the newly elected parliamentarians to look into the matter as the sovereignty of the country was being trampled.

The SCBA leaders reminded the newly elected legislators of the pledge their parties had signed with the lawyers community, about the legal framework order which if accepted would end the supremacy of the parliament and independence of judiciary.

Mr Khan said that if the parliamentarians wanted some provisions of the LFO, like increase in the seats, lowering of voters’ age and some other things, those should be done in the light with the Article 238 and 239 of the Constitution.