ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed has said that his party will never abandon its demand of restoration of deposed judges and the Constitution. Talking to senior lawyers Hamid Khan and Taufiq Asif who had called on him here on Friday, he said the Jamaat would boycott the elections and continue its struggle till the restoration of the pre-emergency judiciary.

He expressed solidarity with the lawyers’ struggle and said his party would continue to support their movement against dictatorship.

He called upon other parties “to stand firm with the lawyers’ community at this important juncture and show no sign of weakness”.

He said the government had taken extra-constitutional measures to prolong Pervez Musharraf’s rule and there could be no fair, free and transparent polls under those illegal and unconstitutional moves.

He accused the government of reducing the previous parliament to a rubber-stamp legislature and said the fate of the new parliament would be the same because “there is no rule of law and the Constitution is in abeyance”.

He said that political parties should brace themselves for a nationwide movement for restoration of the independent judiciary, Constitution and genuine democracy.

He paid tribute to the judges who had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.