November 28, 2007	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 17, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has urged lawyers and activists of political parties, civil society and human rights organisations to assemble outside the Judges’ Colony on Nov 30 and Dec 1, 2008, to resist the eviction of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other judges of the Supreme Court from their official residences.

In a meeting of the PBC, lawyers resolved to resist what they called the ‘illegal eviction’ of the chief justice and other judges. The council decided to file a contempt of court petition after restoration of the pre-PCO judiciary against officials ordering the eviction.

According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, the meeting observed that General Musharraf had unconstitutionally suspended the Constitution and imposed the so-called state of emergency. It regretted that the chief justice and other judges who had refused to take the oath under the PCO were being forcibly prevented from performing their duties and functions under the Constitution and put under house-arrest.

The PBC stressed that under the Constitution the chief justice and other judges were entitled to stay in their official residences. The council criticised the caretaker government for its move to forcibly evict the chief justice and other judges from their official residences.

The council rejected amendments to the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, and said that these had been made through the promulgation of an ordinance. It termed the ordinance a mala fide attempt to curtail the autonomy and independence of the legal profession by withdrawing disciplinary powers of the central and provincial bar councils.

The council rejected the conferment of disciplinary powers against advocates in the Supreme Court and high courts, particularly when these were manned by PCO judges. It also rejected the appellate powers conferred on the attorney general under amended section 13 (2) of the ordinance.

The PCB condemned the maltreatment meted out to senior lawyers, including Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Tariq Mahmood, during their detention.