July 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 11, 1429

LAHORE, July 14: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has proposed that every bar of the country should stage a sit-in on Thursdays.

He was addressing a seminar on `The role of lawyers movement and independence of judiciary’ here at a local hotel on Monday.

The seminar also adopted a resolution for the restoration of the judges through an executive order and staging a sit-in on Thursdays in front of the parliament.

Lahore High Court Bar Association president Anwar Kamal, former LHCBA chief Pir Kaleem Ahmad Khursheed and Lahore Bar Association president Manzoor Qadir also spoke.

Mr Ahsan said the removal of the independent judiciary scared foreign investors away from the country and left the economy in a shambles. He added thejudges, sworn in under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), were incapable of supporting the system.

He said neither the supremacy of the parliament nor a true democracy could be established unless an independent judiciary played its role.

He said the incumbent judges could not show independence because they swore allegiance to a document issued by a man, who flagrantly violated the Constitution and all norms of decency while removing the judges.

“Which investor do you think will trust the judicial system and risk his investment?” he asked.

He said in Europe, the judiciary was made independent three centuries before the democracy came into existence. He asked how the prime minister could claim that the parliament was sovereign when the judiciary was not independent.

He said some elements under the cover of the long march had tried their best to damage the parliament. He added it appeared the government had been waiting for an untoward incident to occur so it could point fingers towards the lawyers movement. He said had there been any unruly scene and damage to the parliament, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry would have been the first person listed in the FIR.

He said the lawyers movement has gained strength after the long march. He added the July 19 All Pakistan Lawyers' Representatives Convention in Lahore would decide about the future line of action.

“Lawyers are out to change the history for which they have to show patience for the course is long and tough,” he said.

He added his bar would suggest to the convention to approve two-hour sit-in on Thursdays for every bar throughout the country to convey their demands to the rulers.—Reporter