LAHORE, July 12: The Supreme Court and Lahore High Court bar associations say that lawyers will be constrained to launch another movement if retired judges are sent to the Supreme Court to fill four vacancies existing since Dec 31.

SCBA president Tariq Mahmood and LHCBA president Ahmad Awais, at a news conference here on Monday, referred to certain newspaper reports that former SC judge Karamat Nazir Bhandari and some others were being sent to the apex court.

They also quoted similar reports as suggesting that the chief justices of high courts of Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan were being elevated to the Supreme Court. They said all efforts were aimed at retaining the Lahore High Court chief justice and the regime was again creating a situation for the lawyers to agitate.

They said any such move would be in violation to the principles of the seniority of judges as spelled out by the Supreme Court in the Al-Jihad Trust case in March 1996 (judges case).

They said they were not opposed to any individual but were concerned at efforts to 'destroy' state institutions. The bar leaders said the lawyers had waged a relentless struggle against the Legal Framework Order and succeeded in the ouster of judges whose retirement age was enhanced. The regime was once again provoking the legal fraternity to go for a similar movement.

In reply to a question, Tariq Mahmood and Ahmad Awais said that the bars supported the accountability of the members of the judiciary. They said the jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Council could be invoked to make judges face corruption charges.

They said the council was never called in session since the 1973 constitution was enforced and it seemed as if article 209 was not part of the basic document. The bar leaders also opposed the candidature of Mr Shaukat Aziz from Attock and Tharparkar pleading that his nomination as the next prime minister was part of a conspiracy.

They were of the view that Mr Aziz was being imposed as prime minister by the world donor agencies as a conspiracy of multinationals of controlling the national economy as part of neo-colonialism.

They said Mr Aziz was being rewarded for his services to the IMF and the World Bank whose debt he retired without the approval of either the National Assembly or the cabinet.

JAC: Meanwhile, a session of the Lawyers Joint Action Committee has been convened in Lahore on July 18 to discuss a three-item agenda which includes practical steps for the trial of generals for abrogating and abetting in the abrogation of the constitution as provided under article 6 of the constitution. The delay in filling Supreme Curt vacancies and the issue of the Gujrat Bar is also on the JAC meeting agenda.