LAHORE, Feb 1: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has asked lawyers to completely boycott the courts of judges who have taken the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said the boycott would be absolute, except for Sindh where lawyers had to appear before the Sindh High Court to represent political workers arrested after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

Earlier in the day, the SCBA president visited the Lahore High Court Bar Association where he was accorded a warm welcome.

The government had withdrawn on Thursday the detention orders of Mr Ahsan.

“We are looking into the matter,” Mr Ahsan said when asked how would he implement the complete boycott decision when some lawyers were appearing before the PCO judges, particularly in Punjab and Sindh.

SCBA office-bearers will attend a meeting of the National Action Committee of lawyers and Pakistan Bar Council on Saturday to persuade them to reverse the decision to limit the boycott to one day.

Mr Ahsan said the lawyers could bring the court to a halt but would not do so keeping in mind litigants’ problems.

“There is no precedent in history regarding the forcible removal and detention of more than 60 judges,” he added.

“Neither General Yahya, nor General Ayub or General Zia attacked the judiciary the way Gen Musharraf did.” He urged political parties to come out and make a clarion call for the release of the deposed chief justice and other judges.

“Now the circumstances are changing. Even the retired generals have realised their mistakes and urged Musharraf to quit. The time will come when President Musharraf will beg for apology but it would not be granted,” he added.

About the absence of main political parties from the lawyers’ movement, Mr Ahsan said there was no friction between political parties and lawyers. “I will not let lawyers go into isolation. We are at war with the king’s party,” he said.

In his speech at the LHCBA, Mr Ahsan warned political parties against what he called the government’s intention to rig the elections massively. “The truth about the elections will be clear to them on February 18. If the general-supported PML-Q will succeed in getting more than 30 seats it will be clear that the elections were rigged,” he added.

Mr Ahsan said that lawyers needed to keep the momentum of their struggle alive because threats to the federation had multiplied.

He said that President Musharraf staged a coup d’etat against his own government when he imposed the emergency rule. “It was a plain acceptance of his failure.”

He criticised the government for its failure to bring down prices of essential food items and end the crisis of flour, gas, electricity and water. “The serpentine queues for buying flour bear testimony to the failure of nine years’ rule of General Musharraf.”

He said the people and politics had suffered the most because of terrorism which flourished due to the regime’s botched policies.

He condemned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and criticised the government for not accepting the PPP’s demand for a UN-led probe. “Who are they trying to protect and why do they not request the UN for a probe into Ms Bhutto’s death?” he asked.

Mr Ahsan said that Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and several judges of the Supreme Court had been confined unlawfully to their residences.

He said that Justice Iftikhar and his family had been under detention for three months without any warrants and legal authority.

He said that the list of charges against Justice Iftikhar distributed by President Musharraf in western countries was a violation of the verdict of a 13-member bench of the Supreme Court which had rejected all allegations raised against the chief justice in a reference filed by the government.He said the general was committing contempt of the court by distributing fake documents as evidence of corruption against the chief justice.

Condemning the statement of US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, he said the secretary had overlooked the importance of having an independent judiciary before the elections.