ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: The Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association on Thursday termed the speech of Gen Pervez Musharraf to a gathering of lawyers a mockery aimed at creating an impression to the people that lawyers' community supported the military rulers.

"The people who attended the gathering addressed by the president were not representatives of the bar association or the bar council but lawyers working with the Attorney-General of Pakistan and Advocate-General, Punjab," PBC's Vice-Chairman Rasheed A. Razvi and SCBA president Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood said in a joint statement. These lawyers, they said, were aspirants to jobs in the government and judiciary.

President Musharraf had told lawyers on Wednesday that political harmony, peace and security were inevitable to meet the internal and external challenges.

"It is the country's institutions which guaranteed its security and prosperity and not an individual," they observed.

They reiterated that the lawyers' community had already rejected in toto the military takeover of Oct 12, 1999, legitimacy extended to the military rule by the Supreme Court, election of Gen Pervez Musharraf as President through referendum, horse trading in the assemblies, holding of dual posts by Gen Musharraf and all other unconstitutional acts of the government.

They pledged that the PBC and the SCBA would continue to struggle for the complete independence of judiciary, the rule of law and the restoration of constitutional rule with the support of the legal fraternity.