ISLAMABAD, July 6: The lawyers' joint action committee will finalize details regarding holding a mock trial of those guilty of what they term subverting the 1973 Constitution on July 18 in Lahore besides deciding a consensus date for the event.

The meeting is being arranged in line with a directive of the Pakistan Bar Council, which approved the proposal to try people whom it termed violators of the constitution in its last meeting and had directed the action committee to finalize the mode of conducting the trial.

The meeting of the joint action committee is likely to be presided over by the recently-elected PBC vice- president Rasheed A. Rizvi. Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry, vice-president of the Supreme Court Bar Association later told journalists that the trial would be conducted under Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitution, adding that a long list of names of constitutional violators was being considered.

While he did not mention names of those who would be tried, but hinted that one of the two people, who would be initially tried, belonged to legal profession while the other belonged to the superior judiciary.

The other item on the agenda of the action committee in its July 18 meeting refers to vacancies in the superior judiciary. The committee is likely to express concern and push the government for the early filling of vacant seats in the superior judiciary, including the Supreme Court and other provincial high courts.

As many as 28 seats of judges are vacant in the judiciary, including the Federal Shariat Court as 98 judges were working in the superior judiciary (including the FSC) against the total strength of 126.

The Supreme Court is also facing a shortage of four judges since against the total strength of 17, it is working with 13 judges only. The action committee would also discuss the outcome of its campaign launched for the complete restoration of 1973 Constitution, sending the armed forces back to barracks, independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of parliament.