04 March 2005	Friday	22 Muharram 1426

ISLAMABAD, March 3: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Thursday again opposed the government's decision to establish federal courts for settling monetary disputes.

Speaking to media persons, PBC Vice-Chairman Rasheed A. Razvi, Chairman Executive Committee Hamid Khan, former Supreme Court Bar Association President Tariq Mehmood and former PBC Vice-Chairman Shakil Ahmed vowed to continue their campaign against military rulers, for revival of parliamentary democracy and independence of judiciary.

They accused President Pervez Musharraf of violating the 17th amendment by not shedding his military uniform. Mr Razvi described the proposed federal courts as "tribunals" since, he added, senior bureaucrats or professionals would be appointed as its members.

It is an attempt to derail the existing judicial system, he said, adding that instead of creating a parallel judiciary attempts should be made to strengthen the system so that the backlog of cases could be reduced.

He said nine posts of judges had been vacant in the Sindh High Court, eight in the Lahore High Court and one in the Balochistan High Court for the last one year. Estimates suggest that 4,500 cases could not be heard during the last one year in the SHC alone due to backlog, he claimed.

Same is the situation in the lower judiciary which, he added, also lacked proper funds even to maintain stationery, library or staff. The federal courts would also render Article 199 (jurisdiction of the high courts) ineffective, Mr Razvi said.

Hamid Khan said the bar had never accepted the 17th constitutional amendment as it had sanctified the Legal Framework Order (LFO). Unfortunately, he added, Gen Musharraf himself broke the promise he had made with the nation to shed army uniform in December 2004. Therefore, we do not consider him as president, he said.

He described the adoption of the dual office bill by parliament as a "black chapter" in the country's parliamentary history and alleged that the parliament had once again proved that it could be reduced to a mere rubber-stamp and any amendment in favour of the military could be passed.

He demanded strict adherence to seniority principle while appointing judges in the superior judiciary. Tariq Mehmood and Shakil Ahmed said provincial autonomy could discourage discontent and remove misunderstanding between the federating units and the centre.

They welcomed the sacking of the Supreme Court registrar on corruption charges and demanded that action should also be taken against a former chief justice in the same case.