KARACHI, Feb 24: Declaring its support to the March 3 strike call against blasphemous caricatures, the Supreme Court Bar Association has appealed to the masses belonging to all walks of life to participate in the strike.

“We think the government instead of opposing the strike call should support it as this is not an issue concerning one individual or group. It is a matter of life and death for the entire Muslim Ummah,” said Justice (Retd) Malik Abdul Qayyum, President of the SCBA speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday.

He said the SCBA not only supported the strike call, but would fully participate and convince others to support it as well.

“We too are for the freedom of speech, but it should not be used as a license to humiliate any religion. We as Muslim respect all religions but cannot allow anybody to sacrilege Islam or the Holy Prophet (SAW) in the name of freedom of press or speech,” Qayyum said.

He dubbed the OIC an “ineffective” platform and said it had totally failed to protect the interests of Muslims. “Had the OIC been an effective organisation, no one would have the courage to disgrace Islam and Muslims,” he maintained.

To a question, he said as per the Constitution, General Pervez Musharraf could not hold the offices of both president and army chief simultaneously after 2007.

“General Musharraf has no choice but to doff his uniform if he wants to remain president after 2007. And if he insists on that, then he will probably loose both offices,” he said.

Asked if the parliament had passed a resolution in line with the 17th amendment permitting Musharraf to remain in uniform after 2007, Qayyum observed that even if it did, the resolution would have no worth before the Constitution.

“The situation has changed. You will see that judges will not violate their oaths, and would play their constitutional role in this regard,” he said.

He said the representation of Sindh did not commensurate with the number of cases and population of the province. Currently, he said, there were only three judges from Sindh in the Supreme Court equal to that of the smaller provinces of the NWFP and Balochistan, which was for the first time in history.

TRANSPORTERS: The Karachi Transport Ittehad, an alliance of 15 transport bodies, has announced that it will observe strike on March 2 and will also put all public transport off roads on March 3 during the countrywide strike call given by the Opposition.