August 6, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Representatives of all the lawyers bodies are meeting here on Thursday to consider the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s talks with the government on the Legal Framework Order.

The Action Committee of Lawyers, comprising representatives of the Pakistan Bar Council, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and high court bar associations, will meet at the PBC office at the SC building.

The agenda of the meeting is to consider the outcome of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal-government negotiations on the Legal Framework Order, with reference to the extension given to the superior court judges.

Earlier, when the lawyers had tried to hold a convention at the Supreme Court building, the SC administration had not allowed them to do so and heavy contingents of police were deployed outside the building to block their entry.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Hamid Khan told Dawn that the meeting would be held at the PBC offices.

He said the lawyers were of the view that no government official could assume the office of president and no one could be elected to the post unless he was qualified to do so under the Constitution.

The lawyers also opposed the establishment of the National Security Council and the president’s powers to dissolve the National Assembly, he said.

The lawyers are demanding that judges should return the three-year extension and claiming that it is violative of the independence of judiciary.

Mr Khan said the lawyers would continue their struggle for the revival of the 1973 Constitution as it was before the military takeover of Oct 12, 1999.