ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: Lawyers’ representatives have asked Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi, a Sindh High Court judge, not to accept extension of three years under the Legal Framework Order and leave the institution after attaining the constitutional age of retirement on Aug 20, 2003.

In a letter to Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi, the lawyers’ representatives, through Pakistan Bar Council secretary, said that the members of the legal fraternity across the country had rejected the LFO and the extension in the age of superannuation of judges of the superior judiciary.

“We feel duty bound...to request you to return to the Bar and take an honoured place amongst the members of the legal fraternity.”

Those who have signed the letter sent to the SHC judge are Rasheed A. Razvi, member PBC; Abdul Haleem Pirzada, member PBC; Abu’l Inam, member PBC; Munir Malik, president SHC Bar Association; Yasin Azad, vice-chairman Sindh Bar Council; and Mohammad Ali Abbasi, President Karachi Bar Association.

Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi is the eighth judge who has availed himself of the extension, starting from the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sheikh Riaz Ahmad. No judge has refused a three-year extension, which is dubbed by the lawyers’ community “dubious gift by the military government” for validating its rule for three years under the doctrine of necessity.

Those who have availed themselves of the extension are Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad (SC); Justice Munir A. Sheikh (SC); Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq (SC); Justice Mohammad Sabir (LHC); Justice Karamat Nazir Bhindari (LHC); Justice Ashraf Leghari (SHC); Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi, (SHC); and Justice Abdur Rauf Khan, (PHC).