January 07, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 27, 1428

LAHORE, Jan 6: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) says the government does not appear to be serious about holding the elections as it is apparent from the prolonged detention of lawyers and illegal confinement of the deposed judges.

PBC vice-chairman Mirza Aziz Akbar Baig says he feels the regime can impose emergency rule under the amended Constitution instead of conceding to the lawyers’ just demand of restoring the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 state.

Talking to Dawn, he says the lawyers had intensified their protest in the wake of the removal of the judges after imposition of `martial law’ in the garb of emergency. They are also seeking release of the judges and lawyers detained after the emergency on Nov 3.

He says the government is still detaining the lawyers - Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmad Kurd advocate and Justice (retired) Tariq Mahmood - who had pushed the March 9 movement to a success.

Similarly, after the removal of the SC judges, who had been hearing the petitions against the candidature of Gen Pervez Musharraf (retired) as the President of Pakistan, Rangers and police were deployed in front of the judges’ residences.

“They are still keeping the Chief Justice of Pakistan under illegal confinement out of fear of a movement (like that of March 9),” says former SCBA president Hamid Khan.

He says the judges have been confined without a written order because under the Constitution a judge cannot be detained.

However, in case of the lawyers, the government did come up with an order of detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance. But it is running out of time to keep them detained under the MPO that prescribes 90-day detention without any judicial cover.

He says article 10 of the Constitution stipulates that a person cannot be detained under a preventive law for more than 90 days unless he or she is brought before a review board. If a person has been detained under a provincial pre-emptive law, he will be presented before a review board, comprising judges of a high court.

Similarly, a person detained under a federal pre-emptive law like that of Security of Pakistan Act or Defence of Pakistan Ordinance, he or she will be presented before a review board, comprising judges of the Supreme Court.

“But we don’t recognise them as legitimate judges. And we have decided not to challenge the detention of lawyers before them at any cost,” says Hamid Khan.

He adds such a move will be tantamount to negating the lawyers’ principled stance on the independence of judiciary.

To a question, he says the lawyers wanted all political parties to participate in the movement for the independence of the judiciary without which the concept of state is incomplete.

“The solution to all ills lies in the ouster of Musharraf,” he says.

“Yes, the president can impose emergency under articles 232 and 233 of the Constitution if the need be,” says Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum, “but frankly I don’t see any reason.”

“The government is serious about holding the elections. It is the polling, which has been postponed, not the elections. The process of elections is still continuing,” says Qayyum.

He admitted that there was no order on detention of judges, who were free to go anywhere.