March 15, 2007	Thursday	Safar 25, 1428

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PESHAWAR, March 14: The NWFP Bar Council on Wednesday placed the licence of Minister of State for Education Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli “under suspension” for allegedly supporting the “manhandling of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry by law-enforcement agencies”.

A meeting of the council, presided over by its vice-chairman Fazal Tawab Khan, referred the issue to the council’s disciplinary committee which would take the final decision in this regard. The meeting also observed that certain statements made by Ms Tahirkheli amounted to “professional misconduct”.

If the committee finds the minister guilty of misconduct, her licence would be cancelled.

Elected members of the council claimed that Ms Tahirkheli had commented on different television channels against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. They said she had favoured what were termed the illegal and unconstitutional steps taken by Gen Pervez Musharraf against Justice Iftikhar.

The council also endorsed a decision of the Pakistan Bar Council to observe an hour-long strike daily. It said a hunger strike camp would be set up on the premises of the Peshawar High Court.

HUNGER STRIKE: Lawyers boycotted court proceedings for the third consecutive day on Wednesday and held a demonstration in protest against the alleged manhandling of Justice Iftikhar.

Lawyers also held a protest meeting on the high court premises to condemn the alleged manhandling of the chief justice by law-enforcement agencies on Tuesday. They said Tuesday’s incident proved that Justice Iftikhar was under house arrest and he was not a free person.

The meeting was followed by the protest demonstration. The protesting lawyers were carrying placards inscribed with different slogans.

ANP STRIKE: The Awami National Party will set up hunger-strike camps on March 19 in all district headquarters in the Frontier province against the president’s move against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, reports our correspondent. ANP’s provincial president Bashir Ahmed Bilour directed all district organisations to observe hunger strikes.

A press release quoted him as saying that making of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry “non-functional” dishonoured the sanctity of the higher courts, adding that the government’s move would affect the transparency of the upcoming elections.

The ANP leader said Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had been punished for certain decisions, including the one involving the ‘Pakistan Steel Mills scam’.

He said the ongoing crisis, which was gripping the government externally and internally, might be aggravated if the institutions concerned clashed. He said that both the Bar and the benches should be heard in accordance with their respective constitutional frameworks while powers should also be transferred to public representatives.

Meanwhile, ANP’s information secretary Zahid Khan condemned what he termed curtailing “the judiciary’s powers and independence” by an individual and said that Gen Pervez Musharraf was “attempting to clip the wings of a free and independent judiciary”, adding that such steps would harm the sanctity and integrity of state institutions.

He said the ANP fully-supported the lawyers in their struggle for upholding the judiciary’s constitutional status and said the ANP had always advocated undiluted democracy and free and independent judiciary.