January 26, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 16, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 25: The forthcoming general election aims only at validation of the removal of the judges of the superior courts and other unlawful measures taken under the provisional constitution order of Nov 3 and endorsement of the overall government policy.

These views were expressed by prominent lawyer Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada, who is a candidate for national and provincial assemblies’ seats from Sukkur, here at a press conference on Friday.

Announcing his boycott of the polls in his constituencies NA-199 and PS-2 (Sukkur), he said that the electoral exercise was meant to secure parliamentary approval for a constitutional amendment in the form of Article 270-AAA and the regime would somehow manage to garner a two-thirds majority.

If the regime failed to obtain a two-thirds majority for the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and other allied parties, pressure would be exerted on other parties and individuals to adopt an amendment legitimising its acts and policies, he said adding that no individual or party would be allowed to form a cabinet without first pledging his or its support to the regime’s policies.

Mr Pirzada urged all political parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party and the PML (N), to boycott the February 18 polls if they wanted establishment of a true democracy in the country. He recalled that his late father, Abdus Sattar Pirzada, was among the framers of the 1956 constitution and his elder brother, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, piloted the 1973 constitution bill and he himself always adhered to the constitutional norms as a lawyer and as a member of parliament.

He was a member of the dissolved national assembly elected on a PPP ticket in 2002 and was contesting the national and provincial seats as a nominee of the National People’s Party, a grouping of some of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s colleagues. His election office was gutted in the disturbances following the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

The president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA), Rasheed A. Razvi, who arranged Mr Pirzada’s press conference in the SHCBA office, greeted him for realising the futility of elections and coming round to the Bar’s point of view.