September 07, 2007	Friday	Sha'aban 24, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 6: The National Action Committee (NAC), a nation-wide body of lawyers, is failing to present a united front as it has launched a movement against President Musharraf’s re-election.

One of its main constituents — the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) — is not willing to become a part of the anti-Musharraf protests. The bar has announced that it has nothing to do with the campaign.

“How can you pull out a resolution from your pocket and expect all lawyers to follow it?” asked LHCBA president Ahsan Bhoon, referring to a meeting of the committee held in Islamabad on Sunday (Sept 2).

The committee, which had launched a successful movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, has now called for a boycott of courts and announced protest rallies to stop Musharraf from re-election as president of the country. It has also decided that the day Musharraf submits his nomination papers, will be observed as a black day.

Bhoon, who did not attend meetings where the current movement was decided, said the NAC did not have the ability to take decisions with a consensus. He claimed local lawyers would heed only the calls made by his bar association which had its own protest plans.

Referring to the lukewarm response by lawyers from Karachi and Islamabad to the Sept 6 strike call, he said the committee should only make `reasonable’ decisions.

Hamid Khan, another prominent bar leader in the movement against `suspension’ of the chief justice, contradicted the impression that the NAC’s decision was not unanimous.

He told Dawn that all decisions in the committee were made with a consensus among the representatives of almost all the bars. LHCBA secretary Sarfraz Cheema was also present in the Islamabad meeting, he said.

With the LHCBA not joining, another body of lawyers — Lahore Bar Association (LBA)— is finding itself at the forefront of the current campaign. As a gesture apparently aimed at showing displeasure at the LHCBA’s indifference to lawyers’ anti-Musharraf move, the LBA ended its rally in front of the LHC instead of the planned venue near the Post Master General’s office.

Known human rights lawyer Asma Jehangir also left a general house meeting of the LHCBA midway and joined the rally that started at Aiwan-i-Adl and marched on The Mall before it ended in front of the high court.

Asma told this reporter that she would follow the action committee’s call for protests rather than the LHCBA’s decision to stay away. But she also urged the committee to sort out the issue.

“The committee should convene another meeting to redress lawyers’ grievances,” she said.