18 July 2004	Sunday	29 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, July 17: Lawyers' Joint Action Committee may work out a strategy to put up opposition to the nomination of Shaukat Aziz as the next prime minister when it meets here on Sunday.

The JAC included the issue on its agenda for the meeting upon a proposal of Lahore High Court Bar Association president Ahmad Awais who had been opposing the nomination since the ouster of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. He wants the JAC to take practical steps to confront the ruling party in its election campaign in Attock and Tharparkar.

The issue of trying those involved in abrogating or abetting abrogation of the 1973 constitution under Article Six, is also on JAC's agenda. The JAC at its last meeting in Islamabad approved this trial in principle and asked the LHCBA president, whose brainchild the proposal was, to submit modalities of the trial. Mr Awais has since submitted a report in this regard which the JAC will consider at the meeting.

The filling of four vacancies in the Supreme Court will also form part of JAC's discussion. The bar across the country is demanding that the vacancies should be filled in accordance with a Supreme Court judgment in the Al-Jihad Trust case of 1996. Popularly known as the Judges Case, it seeks inclusion of judges in the superior judiciary in accordance with their seniority. The bar is opposing apex court vacancies' filling by retired or junior judges.