30 September 2004	Thursday	14 Shaban 1425

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LAHORE, Sept 29: The Pakistan Bar Council has convened for Oct 2 a meeting of representative lawyers across the country to work out a campaign against President Gen Pervez Musharraf's retaining the office of the chief of the army staff.

Members of the Pakistan and provincial bar councils, office-bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association and presidents of the high court and district bar associations have been invited to the conference to be chaired by PBC vice-chairperson Rasheed A Razvi, a former judge of the Sindh High Court.

In a letter to all bars across the country, Mr Razvi referred to a resolution on the uniform adopted by the Pakistan Bar Council at its previous meeting in Islamabad on Sept 12, and said the lawyers' fraternity was obliged to carry out a struggle to save democracy, constitution and the judiciary.

Mr Razvi said the assertions of the president and the mad race of resolutions supporting the retention of the uniform amounted to perpetrating fraud on people and the constitution, which all military rulers had resorted to in the past.

The PBC vice-chairperson said no constitution any where in the world had a room for the head of the state to remain in uniform even if he came from the armed forces. The constitution of Pakistan, he said, prohibited holding of two public offices at the same time. In this regard he referred to articles 43 and 260, and said the lawyers would have to take notice of the violation of the constitution.