0THE opposition’s protests against the LFO and General Musharraf occupying two official seats fell flatly on the establishment’s ears. It was nothing more than cacophony to the General. He had seen it all before and was not prepared to accommodate political hysteria over his khakis or a piece of document grafted ill-assortedly over something as inconsequential as a constitution. But, the general took stock of the situation when the same tune was strummed by the lawyers.
A significant section of the lawyers’ community is challenging the legality of the LFO (Legal Framework Order) and the provision of three years relaxation in the retirement period extended to the judges of the superior courts. The integral part of the lawyers’ campaign revolves around rejecting General Musharraf as the president of this country. Coming from the interpreters of law that should have made the general take notice of them. And he did.
Like his previously planned orchestrations, he sent out his pawnbrokers to get an invitation to address the Lahore Bar Association. At the invitation of the Lahore Bar Association’s president, Mansoorur Rehman Khan Afridi, on June 8, President Musharraf came to a local hotel in Lahore to address a handpicked crowd of 2,500 lawyers out of the 35,000 registered in Punjab.
The Lahore High Court Bar Association, the Supreme Court Bar Association, nearly all the bar councils and the recently formed Joint Action Committee of lawyers decided to boycott the reception. In a resolution passed earlier, the JAC had already made an announcement stating that no government official, including the president, the prime minister, governors and the chief ministers, would be invited to a bar gathering till the issue of the LFO was resolved by the parliament. But the LBA president, Mansoorur Afridi, was not willing to get mired. Despite a heavily united front and dismissing any consequential action against him, the luncheon was hosted as planned.
The podium savvy president talked about everything: his uniform, stating categorically that he would continue to wear it ‘whether anyone liked it or not’ till democracy strengthened. Whenever that might be was left to the imagination. Not that the 2,500 lawyers were interested in his legitimacy, they had been brought-bought to sit in their black coats to listen and not ponder over what he had to say.
The invitation had been specifically manoeuvred to confirm General Musharraf’s acceptance at every forum. Not the one to miss an opportunity, he went on the much trodden track of listing the whys and whereofs of his various decisions. His right to amend the constitution, granted to him by the Supreme Court, was again brought up. He balanced his amendments to the constitution against Nawaz Sharif’s 13th, 14th, and 15th and proceeded to discuss the necessity of the National Security Council. Short of canonising the president, his audience played its part well. There was applause when required and chants when prompted.
The Punjab minister for law and local government, Raja Basharat, could not contain his overloaded enthusiasm. He called the president’s reception ‘historic’, praising all those who had helped to make the occasion part of history. Coming from the government’s history books, around 25 district bar associations, out of a total of 34 in the province, presidents of three Punjab high court bars and the vice president of the Lahore High Court bar had attended the function.
He, of course, decided not to mention the thousands of other lawyers who had boycotted, including Hamid Khan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. But the government’s desperation to win support was too apparent to be missed by skeptics. They claimed that this official campaign to win over lawyers was handed over to Raja Basharat, the provincial advisor, Rana Ejaz Ahmed Khan and senator Dr Khalid Ranjha. They were spotted at various bar councils and associations trying to convince lawyers to attend the luncheon. In a press conference the LHCBA president, Hafiz Ansari alleged that Mansoorur Rehman Afridi had extended the invitation without seeking the approval of the LBA’s executive body. His assertion was that over 300 people of intelligence were asked to pose as lawyers because most of the invitees were judicial officers.
A series of protests started against the LBA president, calling him a ‘traitor’ and demanding to revoke his presidency. The Punjab Bar Council suspended Mr Afridi as president of the Lahore Bar Association. His own association, the LBA, passed a vote of no-confidence against him, appointing the senior vice president as the president.
What ensued during these meetings clearly showed not all lawyers were fighting for the same cause. Though a majority of these lawyers were against Afridi, some of them found it pertinent to politicise the whole thing. Names of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari were heard above the LFO, their followers demanding their return and release. During a meeting of the LHCBA’s general body meeting, scenes of abuse and scuffles were seen between the anti and the pro-government lawyers.
Jumping into the fray, the government had to put its own stamp of disapproval on the entire affair. The Supreme Court’s help was sought, which was too modest to comply anyway, forbidding lawyers from holding a traditional convention in the SCBA office in Islamabad. Through a letter sent to the president of the SCBA, the registrar of the Supreme Court Mr M A Farooqi, informed that he had been directed to state that ‘agencies responsible for security arrangements, in and around the SC building, had been directed to ensure that lawyers coming to the convention should not be permitted to attend it’.
The government had opened up another unnecessary front. But the real victim was the judiciary, making its impartiality highly suspect and, sadly, reducing its worth to an arbitrary extension of the establishment.
There’s no division
The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Hamid Khan, does not want to upstage Mansoorur Rehman Afridi even to infamy for the most obvious reason. “He’s a nobody to me. Besides the lawyers movement is not about a person, it’s about principles and morals. I must make one thing very clear here, that breach of principles by one person does not mean a division exists among lawyers. There’s no division,” claims the president of the SCBA. And yet he could not deny the invitation to the president and the events that followed had seriously marred the lawyers reputation. “It’s not just the lawyers, people can be bought in every profession. There are 34 districts in the Punjab, the government could only manage to buy the president of one of them. Everybody knows about Khalid Ranjha, Rana Ejaz and a few other lawyers who have sold out to the government to keep their appointments.”
He blamed the government for crossing all parameters to stay in power, keeping up the traditions of the past for flagrantly using the judiciary. “This time the government has not shown any subtlety and has blatantly attempted to buy lawyers because, obviously, our movement is threatening its validity. That’s why the luncheon was held at a hotel whereas lawyers functions are always held on the premises of the bar associations.”
Hamid Khan disclosed that representatives of the lawyers were not invited; only those on the government payroll with the intelligence clearance were given the invitations. “Hafiz Abdul Rehman, president of the LHBCA caught a district judge distributing cards to the civil and sessions judges, and to the district and deputy district attorneys. The LBA president (i.e. Mr Afridi) is known to be available to the highest bidder. He was paid Rs5 million to organize the lunch,” reveals Hamid Khan.
There are five sections of the LFO which are objectionable to the lawyers: the president’s position in holding two offices, discretionary powers of the president to dissolve the national and provincial assemblies, the National Security Council, the extension in the retirement age of judges by a military ruler and restriction on the legislative powers of the parliament by the LFO. “I am grossly disappointed in the judiciary which has become the tool of the rulers. The Pakistan Bar Council, the main regulatory body of Pakistan, is going to launch a white paper on the judiciary. The main focus will be the role of judiciary post-October 1999 and the way the military has manipulated it, making it a junior partner in ruling Pakistan.” Coming from one of the most senior lawyers of the country, the allegation sounds too serious to be cast aside. It is also worth noting that if a lawyer has lost faith in the judiciary, where should an average person go for justice?
I remain the head
Reviled and characterized as someone who has sabotaged the lawyers’ cause by violating the principles of solidarity, Mansoorur Rehman Khan Afridi should be rightfully concerned about his future as a lawyer. Far from showing any signs of apprehension, he refuses to accept his suspension as president of the Lahore Bar Association. “My name was not mentioned in the notice sent by the secretary Lahore High Court Bar Association. It has only revoked the membership of Arif Chaudhry, not mine. I am still the president of the LBA,” states Mr Mansoorur Rehman Afridi.
In his opinion the issue of inviting the president has no legal status. “If we have accepted last year’s general elections, why should we not give President Musharraf the respect he deserves?” Putting it all down to politicisation organized by Jamaat-I-Islami’s Hafiz Ansari, Mr Afridi regrets the lawyers’ division at a time when the country is in a politically tenuous position.
“Instead of strengthening the institutions, we are squabbling over non-issues like inviting President Musharraf to lunch. The LFO is an interim arrangement, and should be dealt with by the parliament. I have never said that I approve of the LFO or support the president’s political decisions. But those are separate matters which have to be decided within a legislative framework,” insists Mr Afridi.
He denied charges of government manipulation to divide the lawyers. “The rift is played up and exaggerated by those people who are not pleased with my presidency. They know that in a short time I have achieved the legal community. I have made changes to the courts’ buildings for the litigants benefit and have also asked the government to help me in refurbishing them. What’s wrong in that request?” inquiries Mr Afridi.
The controversial luncheon cost President Musharraf Rs150 million to be made available as relief for lawyers. Mr Mansoorur Rehman Afridi is content to congratulate himself on the president’s generous donation, believing that the real problem lies not in the invitation but his opponents’ fears of being shown as under-achievers. “With the help of this grant if I achieve half of what they have been promising to the lawyers, you can imagine what will happen to their credibility. They know they’ll lose the next election as well.” It is heartening to know that while the rest of his colleagues are drumming support against the LFO, he is already planning his next bar association victory. Does he realize the infamous lunch has cost him just that?
0THE opposition’s protests against the LFO and General Musharraf occupying two official seats fell flatly on the establishment’s ears. It was nothing more than cacophony to the General. He had seen it all before and was not prepared to accommodate political hysteria over his khakis or a piece of document grafted ill-assortedly over something as inconsequential as a constitution. But, the general took stock of the situation when the same tune was strummed by the lawyers.
