LAHORE: President Ayub made an appeal today [Aug 20] to base our legal system on morality and thereby ensure that the moral society of ours be sustained.

The President was discussing the changes required in the country at a meeting here of prominent lawyers this morning. He pointed out that ours was a moral society and unless the legal system was also based on morality, society could not be expected to be honest.

He referred to the Law Reforms Commission in this respect which has been constituted to suggest changes in the judicial procedures with a view to making justice cheaper and expeditious.

The President believed that the legal profession should not be left open to everybody. The lawyers could render a great service to the nation and hence the profession should have in its ranks the best of people.

[Agencies add,] President Ayub advised the lawyers to ensure that their Bar Associations were used strictly for the advancement of the legal profession. The Bar Associations should not be allowed to be used by politicians as platforms.

The President advised the lawyers to bring forward concrete suggestions on the problems of lawyers. He said that the Government was fully prepared to solve their difficulties.

The President said he expected that the gentlemen of the legal profession would not only perform their duty as lawyers but, being members of a learned profession, they would also render social service by building people along the proper course of life.

Earlier a number of speakers from among the lawyers paid tributes to the President for bringing about stability in the country. They admired his efforts to uphold the rule of law and independence of judiciary and for giving the country a constitution which embodied fundamental rights.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2017