August 12, 2006	Saturday	Rajab 16, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: The Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Bar Council (PBC) and Supreme Court Bar Association on Friday decided to boycott Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s dinner for the delegates of the international judicial counsel being organized by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“We have decided to attend the opening session of the judicial conference with some qualms even though the prime minister is invited but we will abstain from his dinner,” President Supreme Court Bar Association Malik Mohammad Qayyyum announced soon after two-hour marathon session of the association.

On Thursday, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leaders had requested the judges and the lawyers not to invite the prime minister when the Supreme Court had pointed fingers in the Pakistan Steel Mills against the members of the cabinet committee on privatisation (CCOP) of which the prime minister was the chairman.

It will not be appropriate to boycott the inaugural session of the conference since the function is organized by the Supreme Court, and we are part of it, Malik Qayyum said.

“It is not proper to wash dirty linen in front of foreign delegates as it will give a wrong impression that we are divided,” he said adding SCBA still had reservations against the prime minister after the judgment.

SCBA president also demanded of the government to appoint a judicial inquiry in terms of the Commission of Inquiry Acts 1956 comprising three or five judges of the Supreme Court against CCoP members. Usually such commissions complete their findings in a months time, he said.

On the other hand, Ali Ahmed Kurd, vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), said that the council members would abstain from the prime minister’s dinner and the concluding ceremony, which President Pervez Musharraf will preside.

PBC members however will attend the opening session of the conference since it is the Supreme Court which has organized the ceremony. he explained.

He reiterated the stand of PBC saying the council did not consider President Pervez Musharraf as the legitimate president rather we believe that he was a “usurper.”

He was of the view that the PSM decision should also be considered as a no confidence against the president since he handpicked majority of the cabinet members who were allegedly corrupt and wanted by the National Accountability Bureau.