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| 21 November 2004 | Sunday | 08 Shawwal 1425 |
Lawyers come to blows
LAHORE, Nov 20: The all-Pakistan lawyers convention here on Saturday was a three-and-a-half-hour pandemonium as supporters and opposers of the military government raised deafening slogans.
The convention was called by the Lawyers Joint Action Committee to condemn the regime for 'undermining' the constitution by adding the controversial 17th Amendment to it and asking Gen Musharraf to step down to pave the way for elections for the president under the supervision of the judges of the Supreme Court after the appointment of a new and impartial election commission.
The culminating stage of the convention was the fist fighting between the ruling PML supporters and their opponents when the Lahore High Court Bar Association, which hosted the convention, moved resolutions. A group shouted they were adopted while the opponents claimed they were rejected.
A group of anti-government lawyers occupied the stage. They lifted their leaders on shoulders and raised slogans in response to slogans of their rival group in the Karachi Hall where the convention was being staged. The hall reverberated with slogans "Go Musharraf, go"; "Wardi Bohat Zaroori Hai" (the uniform is absolutely necessary)" and "down with Benazir-Nawaz axis".
The convention was chaired jointly by Pakistan Bar Council vice-chairman Justice Rashid A Razvi (retired) and Qazi Mohammad Jamil, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. Justice Razvi announced at the outset that the lawyers community would observe a country-wide black day on January 10 if Gen Musharraf failed to honour his commitment that he would cast his uniform by December 31.
The observance of the black day by lawyers was a part of the resolution which said the community was greatly disappointed with the National Assembly for adopting an act to allow Gen Musharraf to retain both the offices, the chief of army staff and the president.
"This law clearly subverts the constitution as it overrides the basic law," the resolution said and added that neither the fraudulent referendum of April, 2002, nor the vote of confidence of January, 2004, conferred legitimacy on Gen Musharraf to remain in the presidency.
The resolution demanded that Gen Musharraf should quit both the offices by December 31 for holding fresh presidential elections and the appointment of a new chief of the army staff in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.
The convention also decided Karachi as the next venue for another all-Pakistan convention on January 29.
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