ISLAMABAD, Sept 2: The National Action Committee of lawyers on Sunday decided to launch a countrywide campaign on Sept 6 to block President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s re-election and to close the doors on military rule in the country once and for all.

A meeting of the committee, attended by Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik, Pakistan Bar Council vice-president Mirza Aziz Baig, PBC Executive Committee chairman Qazi Mohammad Anwar and presidents of district bar associations from all over the country, called for restoring democracy, saying the legal community did not want Gen Musharraf to be replaced by another army general.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, Mr Malik, Mr Baig and Mr Anwar said the Defence of Pakistan Day would be observed as the ‘day of people’s right to rule’. A strike would be observed in courts all over the country and rallies would be held at various places. Protest meetings at bar rooms would also be held, they added.

They said the day when Gen Musharraf would file his nomination papers for the presidential election would be observed as a ‘black day’. A protest demonstration would be held in front of the Election Commission office. A ‘black day’ would also be observed when Gen Musharraf’s nomination papers would be scrutinised, they said.

They urged political parties, including the ruling PML, to ensure their legislators in national and provincial assemblies resigned before Sept 15 to frustrate Gen Musharraf’s re-election bid.

Mr Baig observed that Gen Musharraf was not eligible to contest the presidential election either in uniform or without it. “We do not accept any formula for power-sharing between the military and the political forces,” he said.

Asked if political parties would be asked to join the movement, he said the PBC had invited political parties before the 2002 election and Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rahman were signatories to a document pledging not to allow the Legal Framework Order to become part of the Constitution.

He said political parties and the civil society should play their role in the struggle. “We neither want any ministerial slot nor do we want seats in parliament. Our struggle is for strengthening the country’s defence, ensure rule of the law and supremacy of the Constitution. Our struggle is for people’s rights.”

Mr Malik asked Gen Musharraf to resign both as president and chief of the army staff and handover the office of the president to the Senate chairman, who should form an interim caretaker set-up to conduct free and fair election under an independent election commission.

He said the lawyers’ meeting had called for an end to the military operation in Balochistan and asked state agencies to release missing people and produce those facing some charges in the court. He said the meeting had demanded withdrawal of cases against political workers.

Baz Mohammad Kakar from Balochistan claimed that over 10,000 people of his province were missing. He said he had sent a list of the people to the authorities.

He said the committee had decided to hold a strike from 1am to 2.30pm on Sept 10 to express sympathy with families of the missing.

Ali Ahmad Kurd said the SCBA would arrange a seminar on Sept 8 in which bar associations and media representatives would be awarded shields and certificates for their role during the judicial crisis.