ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The newly-elected office-bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court administration to open the bar offices, but said they would not compromise on the issues of the LFO and extension in the retirement age of judges.

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, bar body President Tariq Mehmood and Vice-president Chaudhry Ikram demanded that the associations’ offices sealed by the Supreme Court in June should be reopened immediately.

The association’s office-bearers said they fully supported the decisions of the outgoing SCBA body, and would continue their struggle for the revival of 1973 Constitution as it stood on Oct 12, 1999.

They said lawyers believed that the judges of the superior courts were given three-year extension in their retirement age as a reward for their cooperation with the military government.

Outgoing SCBA president Hamid Khan on the occasion said the lawyers community had voted for those candidates who were opposed to the LFO.

They alleged that the government and the judiciary used official resources for the success of their favourite candidates, but utterly failed. When they failed, they demolished the chambers of lawyers in Lahore, and issued such a list of cases in Supreme Court which not only confused the lawyers but also the judges.

Hamid Khan said the lawyers of the country were concerned at the manner in which the multilateral loan of $350 million for judicial reforms was being wasted. He said the construction of buildings with the loan was a sheer waste.

Tariq Mehmood said all the important players including the corps commanders were getting their people appointed in the judiciary.

Mr Mehmood said the exorbitant salary of the judges was one cause of their subjugation.

He said the Supreme Court had ordered in one case that the post of Naib Qasid should also be advertised for the sake of transparency. But unfortunately, the same principle was not applied in the appointment of judges, he said.

Hamid Khan announced the final list of the elected office-bearers of the SCBA:

President Tariq Mehmood (763 votes), Punjab Vice-president Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry (594), Sindh Vice-president Muhammad Akram Zuberi (498), Balochistan Vice-president Ali Ahmed Kurd (elected unopposed), NWFP Vice-president Abdul Latif Yousafzai (elected unopposed), Secretary Farooq Zaman Qureshi (481), Additional Secretary Dil Muhammad Tarar Chaudhry (501) and Finance Secretary Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhutta (474).

The elected members of the SCBA executive committee are: Ainuddin Khan from Sindh (644 votes), Sohail Hayat Khan from Sindh (623), Abdul Jamal Khan Mandokhel from Balochistan (561), Mrs Shamsa Ali from Punjab (549), Mrs Roshan Ara Faridi from Punjab (526), Imran-ul-Haq Khan from Balochistan (495), Sher Muhammad Khan Raja from Sindh (477), Muhammad Anwar Sipra from Punjab (466), Amanat Ali Bokhari from Punjab (455), Muhammad Waheed Akhtar Mian from Punjab (427), Zahid Hussain Malik from Balochistan (403) and Muhammad Amin Javed Chaudhry from Punjab (400).