June 29, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 24, 1429

LAHORE, June 28: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Saturday deferred a discussion on the proposed constitutional package after a bitter argument between its two members.

At a briefing after a PBC meeting, attended by 15 of its 22 members at an office of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, PBC Vice-Chairman Said Rehman said lawyers would suggest amendments to the constitutional package. He said the coalition government had given them the package and they were reviewing it. “We might propose restoration of the judges through an executive order.”

He said the Rs50 million grant announced by the federal law minister was the PBC’s right and was guaranteed under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act. He said it would be wrong to assume that it would affect the movement. “The movement for the restoration of judges would continue without any change,” he announced. “The boycott of PCO judges and rallies on Thursdays would continue,” he added.

However, he made it clear that no other bar council or bar association could give call for a countrywide protest. He said the PBC would evolve a future strategy for the lawyers’ movement in its next meeting.

Talking to Dawn, PBC member Raja Shafqat Abbasi said the council could not debate the constitutional package because everybody was aware of the mood of the meeting. “Most of the members had sensed that it would not be appropriate to discuss the meeting minutes.”

He said a discussion was due on the PBC executive committee’s rejection of the constitutional package. In a recent briefing, two of the three members of the PBC executive committee rejected the constitutional package. Committee members Hamid Khan and Rashid A Rizvi rejected the package, while Kazim Khan favoured it.

PBC member Sardar Latif Khosa told the meeting that the long march, which was ‘essentially’ a lawyers’ show, was hijacked by political parties.

When Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari sought to dispel the impression, Kazim Khan said lawyers should not politicise the matter. “If you like to corner us, we will see how you run the movement,” said Kazim Khan.

The PBC vice chairman presided over the meeting, which was attended by Imdad Ali Awan, Raja Shafqat Abbasi, Ramzan Chaudhry, Hamid Khan, Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari, Israrul Haq, Rashid A Rizvi, Abdul Halim Kundi, Mirza Aziz Akbar, Sardar Latif Khosa, Dr Khalid Ranjha, Pervaiz Inayat Malik and Ashraf Wahla.