LAHORE, March 17: The new leadership of the Lahore High Court Bar Association vowed on Wednesday to hold trial of all those responsible for subverting the 1973 Constitution.

"A tribunal of senior lawyers will hold trial of all such people on the charge of high treason", Bar president Ahmad Awais told newsmen at his maiden news conference.

An 'assembly' of senior jurists, comprising no less than 100 noted lawyers from across the country, would identify and frame charges against all politicians, judges and generals who subverted or abetted in subverting the constitution by undermining elected parliament and other institutions.

To be convened soon, the 'assembly' would cease to exist after appointing a national tribunal which would initiate trial under known legal norms and procedures that allowed the right to defence.

Observers from the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Saarc states would be invited to attend the tribunal's proceedings. Mr Awais said the composition of the assembly and resultant tribunal would be presented before an all-Pakistan lawyers representative convention for a national mandate.

The convention has been convened at Lahore on March 20 on the call of the Pakistan Bar Council and the Lawyers Joint Action Committee. The lawyers community was under a national obligation to put to an end once for all the adventurism that targeted smooth political and democratic dispensation and ultimately weakened the state, he said.

Pakistan Bar Council's executive committee chairperson Kazim Khan, Supreme Court Bar Association's former president Hamid Khan and outgoing LHCBA president Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari said that the convention was being convened to secure a fresh mandate for the lawyers movement in pursuance of a sustainable campaign against the issues which emanated from the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

They were of the view that the lawyers movement had not ceased because the 17th Amendment had given birth to many constitutional issues, particularly when the LFO was not presented to the National Assembly and the amendment in the basic law was made in violation of the procedure given in the constitution.

They said that rule of law, the restoration of the constitution in its letter and spirit, independence of the judiciary and ending the "unholy alliance between the judiciary and the army" were some of the declared objectives of the campaign.

Besides, an end to adventurism that intervened smooth political process and democratic dispensation was also a major objective of the lawyers community. Since all the objectives were yet to be achieved, the lawyers movement could not be deemed as having lost currency.

Replying to questions, they said the purpose behind the tribunal's trial was to expose all those who had committed high treason by harming national institutions.