May 10, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, May 9: The Supreme Court Bar Association on Friday said that challenging educational qualification of members of parliament in courts was made with mala fide intentions and added that the Bar would not accept any judgment aimed at blackmailing the legislators.

Through a resolution at its anti-LFO meeting, the SCBA called upon the judges, who have reached the constitutional age of retirement, to leave the office. The SCBA observed Friday as ‘Anti-LFO Day’.

SCBA president Hamid Khan said when genuine petitioners came before the court it disallowed them and rejected their petitions at the initial stage, saying they had no locus standi or were premature.

But when surrogate petitioners came up, he said, their petitions were fixed for hearing promptly and the attorney-general was called on one-day notice. Such petitioners, he pointed out, wanted to blackmail the parliamentarians who were not supporting the extension in the retirement age of the judiciary.

Hamid Khan said Dr Aslam Khaki, a petitioner who has challenged the education qualifications of MMA legislators, was a member of the SCBA which would decide what action was needed against him for violating its decision of not agitating any matter before the judiciary, which, he added, had ceased to be an independent institution.

The SCBA meeting rejected the Legal Framework Order, terming it unconstitutional and illegal. It said General Musharraf was trying to subordinate the Constitution to his own will in order to perpetuate himself in power.

The meeting expressed the belief that amending Constitution was an exclusive function of parliament, and neither a military ruler can amend the Constitution nor can the Supreme Court authorize him do so.

The SCBA reaffirmed that a man in military uniform could neither act as president of the country nor could he be elected president. The stance of General Musharraf that he was elected president through referendum was unconstitutional and untenable, and the nation had rejected the so-called referendum as farce and fraudulent, it said.

The SCBA also rejected the assumption of discretionary power by General Musharraf to dissolve the National Assembly as undemocratic, draconian and an attempt to stifle the constitutionally exalted position of parliament.

SCBA Secretary Sahibzada Hameed, Chaudhry Ikram, Fazal Ellahi Siddiqui, Shah Khawar, Manzoor Gillani and Malik Manzoor also spoke at the meeting presided over by Hamid Khan.

The meeting rejected the National Security Council as an attempt by General Musharraf to establish supremacy of the military on civilian institutions.