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KARACHI, April 7: The Pakistan Bar Council has rejected the proposals for establishment of a federal court and division of high courts in four benches as being violative of the Constitution.
A PBC meeting held in Karachi on April 2 discussed the proposals and the situation in Balochistan and Waziristan and passed the following resolutions:
“The PBC takes a serious note of the proposals being floated by the government in the name of judicial reforms…. It rejects all the proposals and is of the opinion that any legislation to establish a federal court or a federal high court or to create independent divisions within the existing high courts would be violative of the Constitution, particularly of its provisions relating to the independence of the judiciary. The council feels that such proposals are being considered in order to weaken the judiciary and make it ineffective and subordinate to the executive.
BALOCHISTAN: The PBC views with serious concern the military operation being carried out in Balochistan. General Pervez Musharraf, instead of implementing the recommendations of the two parliamentary committees headed by Senators Mushahid Hussain and Wasim Sajjad, has chosen military action against the Baloch people.
Public demands always require political solutions and military solutions can never break the will of the people…. The military rulers never learn any lesson from history, not even from the events leading to the break-up of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh.
The mass-scale ejectment of the Bugtis, the Marris and the Mengals from their heath and home is counter-productive and destructive of the federation.
We, therefore, call upon the government to forthwith stop the military action in Balochistan and address the problems politically so as to strengthen the federation. We call upon all the bar associations of the country to observe a day of solidarity with the people of Balochistan and pass resolutions on the issue.
“The council also resolves to hold a lawyers convention in Quetta in which members of the provincial bar councils and representatives of the high court and district bar associations will be invited to express their solidarity with the people and support their demand for provincial autonomy under the Constitution.
WAZIRISTAN: “The PBC is extremely perturbed over the continuing military operation in Waziristan and other areas of the Frontier province. General Pervez Musharraf, in appeasing America and Pentagon, has not only used the Pakistan Army in killing its own people under the garb of flushing out terrorists but has also covertly allowed American and allied forces to directly bomb Pakistan villages resulting in civilian casualties.
The meeting, presided over by PBC vice-chairman Ali Ahmed Kurd, was attended by Safirullah Khan and Haji Syed Rahman from Peshawar; Chaudhry Ashraf Wahla, Sardar Latif Khosa, M. Ahsan Bhoon, M. Ramzan Chaudhry, Hamid Khan, M. Kazim Khan and Asrarul Haq Mian from Lahore; Rasheed A. Razvi, Abul Inam and M. Yasin Azad from Karachi; Raja Shafqat Abbasi from Islamabad; Syed Qalb-i-Hasan from Rawalpindi; Mirza Aziz Akbar Baig from Multan; and Imdad Awan from Sukkur.
