July 04, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 3: The Peshawar High Court Association has said that lawyers would participate in the proposed long march for the restoration of pre-Nov 3 judiciary with vigour and enthusiasm.

Amid boycott of the courts, a general body meeting of PHCBA, chaired by its president Abdul Lateef Afridi, was held here which criticised the role of intelligence agencies stating that those agencies wanted to start civil war on the land of Pakhtuns.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution the meeting demanded restoration of the independent judges. It was resolved that lawyers would participate in the proposed long march with more vigour. The meeting also asked the US government to stop interference in the affairs of the country.

The participants of the meeting also criticised the visit of US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher stating that he visited Pakistan on every crucial moment to influence the decision making. They demanded of the government to restore pre-Nov 3 judiciary stating that delaying the issue would intensify crises in the country. The meeting was addressed by Lateef Afridi, PHCBA secretary general Essa Khan, vice president Fida Gul, Abdul Qadir Khattak, Yasir Khattak, FM Sabir, Arshid Khan, Hazrat Said and others.

They expressed concern over the attitude of local police citing the incident when some unidentified persons had chased Fida Gul and fired at his vehicle few days ago. They regretted that police had not arrested any of the culprits involved in the occurrence.

Mr Afridi termed the statement of Minister for Information Sherry Rehman incorrect wherein she had claimed that the Bara operation was launched on behest of NWFP government. “In fact the provincial government had only pointed out to the federal government the issue of incursions into the provincial capital from adjoining tribal areas,” he said.

He added that it was the responsibility of federal government to restore peace in Fata but it was not accepting the responsibility and instead passing the buck to others.

He said that Pervez Musharraf had been portraying Pakhtuns as extremists and preparing ground for war against the US in the region. He added that instead of exploiting the Pakhtuns the Pakistan army should itself fight Americans and stop playing double games.

Mr Afridi took exception to speech of an earlier speaker who levelled allegations against Aitzaz Ahsan and other leaders for not staging a sit-in in Islamabad. He said that Aitzaz had not been appearing before the PCO judges. He added that Aitzaz twice turned down opportunities of becoming MNA and was dedicated to the lawyers’ movement.He stated that only independent institutions could safe the country. He criticised the US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher for coming in support of Pervez Musharraf stating that the Americans had been behaving as if Pakistan was their colony.

Other speakers counted various achievements of the lawyers’ movement. They said that the movement had created awareness among the masses about rule of law and supremacy of the constitution. They added that it was because of this awareness that hundreds of thousands of people came out of their residences and participated in the long march.