June 17, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 12, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 16: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has asked the legal fraternity to forgive their leadership for an ‘honest mistake’ made on Saturday when the long march was called off without staging a sit-in for ‘even a day’.

Hamid Khan, a PBC member, said on Monday: “Termination without staging a sit-in was a big mistake that … benefited Musharraf and his cohorts”.

He was talking to reporters here at the All Pakistan Representatives Conference in Islamabad to be held on June 28 on restoration of the pre-Nov-3 judiciary.

“The PBC will analyse … the long march to avoid mistakes in future,” a statement signed by Pakistan Bar Council vice-chairman Haji Syed Rehman and chairman of the executive committee Rasheed A. Razvi said.

Hamid Khan said the decision to “hastily conclude the march was taken by one individual who announced it … without taking the implementation committee that was overseeing the event into confidence”.

He said that members of the committee were under the impression that lawyers would stage “at least a day-long sit-in but its (sudden) termination should be construed as an honest mistake”.

“Many bar associations went away fuming over the lost opportunity to force the government to reinstate the deposed judges,” Mr Khan said.