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| August 05, 2007 | Sunday | Rajab 20, 1428 |
KARACHI: Lawyers slam military rule, vow to continue struggle
KARACHI, Aug 4: Counsel for Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in the presidential reference vowed on Saturday to continue the lawyers’ movement till the supremacy of the law and the constitution in the country is achieved.
Chaudhry Aitizaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Munir Malik, constitutional historian and former SCBA chief Hamid Ali, and Ali Ahmed Kurd were addressing a seminar on “Lawyers’ movement: Yesterday, today and tomorrow,” organised by the Pakistan Democracy Foundation, with Justice (retd) Fakharuddin G. Ebrahim in the chair.
Aitizaz Ahsan said that the legal fraternity showed an amazing resolve and the people welcomed the chief justice in an unprecedented manner.
Giving an example of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, he said that the army and weapons alone could never guarantee the sovereignty of a country.
He said military rule was totally incompatible with democracy, which was the only solution to the plight of the masses.
During the question-hour session he said: “You can take Aitizaz Ahsan out of the PPP; but you can’t take the PPP out of Aitizaz Ahsan.”
Munir Malik stressed the need to change the mindset of the people. He added that the mindset of the politicians needed to be changed as well.
“The road to Islamabad doesn’t lead from Washington. Rather, it leads from Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar,” he said.
He advised the political parties to stop being the ‘B’ team of the army and “Instead be the ‘A’ team of the people of Pakistan.”
Hamid Ali said the lawyers had always spoken out against military rule. “Lawyers were active against General Ayub Khan and General Ziaul Haq and suffered a lot during military regimes,” he claimed.
“The issue is whether we want the rule of the constitution or the rule of the army. We want only the rule of the constitution and military rule is not acceptable at all,” he added.
Earlier, in his fiery address Ali Ahmed Kurd said the lawyers’ community would never accept general elections under the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
He asked the president to step down as it was the “desire of millions of Pakistanis.”
Mr Kurd said the people had rejected the military regime.
He said the legal fraternity would not sit idle until the true rule of law and the people was restored in the country.
Criticising the army’s role in politics, he said Pakistan was created as a welfare state for Muslims of the subcontinent, but it was later turned into a national security state.
“The first priority in a welfare state is the people; in a national security state the priority is the army and weapons,” he observed.
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