LAHORE, July 12: Represen-tatives of district bar associations of Punjab have suggested staging a sit-in in Islamabad till the restoration of deposed judges to their Nov 3 position.

The decision came at a meeting attended by presidents and secretaries of the 32 district bar associations of the province. The office-bearers exchanged views on how to make more effective the lawyers movement for the restoration of the deposed judges.Briefing the media, Lahore Bar Association President Manzoor Qadir urged the lawyers’ community to set a deadline for the government and make tough decisions to compel the government to restore the judges. The suggestions made in the meeting would be tabled before lawyers’ representative convention to be held in Lahore on July 19.Qadir asked all bar associations not to invite any PCO judge, including Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. The meeting also approved a suggestion that no bar should invite a minister or an adviser of the federal government to their bar unless the judges were restored.

The representatives of the bars also urged the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) to refuse the grants of the federal government, which, they said, were aimed at dividing the lawyers and obstructing the movement for independence of the judiciary.

Qadir said any district bar inviting any PCO judge or the federal minister or adviser to its functions would face wrath of the community. The participants of the meeting also decided not to accept any decision taken individually but that which would come through the Joint Action Committee representing the countrywide community.

Reposing complete confidence in the leadership of SCBA President Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmad Kurd, Justice Tariq Mahmood (retired), Munir A Malik, Hamid Khan and Justice Rashid A Rizvi (retired), the bar representatives asked them all to give a deadline to the government to restore the judges otherwise they would all march to Islamabad to stage a sit-in till the restoration.

They observed that previously the government gave a timeframe to restore the judges but failed and now the lawyers must give it an ultimatum.

Eluding the PML-N, Qadir said, before elections it subjected its candidates under oath to restore the judges while the other party in rule had failed to abide by its commitment. If the coalition partners did not restore the judges, the lawyers’ movement would lead them to the same destination, which the PML-Q met in the form of a crushing defeat in the Feb 18 elections, and the partners would come under the same treatment at the hands of lawyers as it was being given to General Pervez Musharraf (retired).

He said once the judges were restored, legal fraternity all over the country would stand with the government to remove General Musharraf.