LAHORE, Dec 20: President Gen Pervez Musharraf is yet to decide if his casting off the Chief of the Army Staff uniform will serve the national interest, says Malik Muhammad Qayyum, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

“The president has told us that any decision will be in the best national interest and that he will make up his mind fairly soon”, Qayyum who headed a delegation to the Presidency told a news conference here on Tuesday.

The SCBA chief said since the issue had a major impact on the national politics, the president should retain one office. “We cannot support a president in uniform,” he added.

Qayyum said he gave the president a number of proposals to resolve the dam issue. One such proposal was that the jurisdiction of the Council of Common Interests should be invoked for the constitution of a commission to formulate its recommendations. Such recommendations, he said, were binding even on parliament. Another proposal was, he said, that the federation should move the Supreme Court in a reference under article 184(1) of the constitution to resolve this inter-provincial dispute in a constitutional way. He said the federal government was considering a proposal of raising the number of the Supreme Court judges. He said the apex court should have equal representation of provinces which had so far been an anomaly.

He said Sindh was represented by three judges only whereas its share should at least be five. He said the president was in agreement with him that elevation to SC judges should be based on seniority and junior high court judges should not be sent to the apex court when seniors were available. He said he also proposed to the president that judges of the apex and provincial high courts should be retired on a uniform age and they should not be offered jobs after retirement.

The SCBA president said that he also proposed to the president that a permanent law commission, comprising senior jurists, should be set up to remove constitutional irritants and ensure a smooth working of the constitution.

Qayyum further told the president that the law and order was on a sharp decline, with the Punjab on top.