ISLAMABAD, April 1: Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association on Monday announced that they would resist the holding of referendum as it could not substitute elections for the president’s post.

PBC Executive Committee Chairman Abdul Haleem Pirzada and SCBA President Hamid Khan announced in a press conference that the representatives of all bar associations would assemble in Lahore on April 20 to chalk out a strategy for resisting the proposed referendum.

They said that referendum clause of the Constitution was not meant for presidential election.

Pirzada said that if Gen Pervez Musharraf was sure that majority of the countrymen were in his favour, he should field one of his friends for the post of president as he was barred from contesting election.

He said that only political parties with marginal standing in the public were supporting the president in his proposed referendum.

He said that the lawyers were “ridiculing” the idea of holding a referendum, and would continue raising their voice against the move. He said a public awareness drive would be launched in this regard and constitutional petitions would be filed in the SC.

The SCBA chief said that a conference of the lawyers was being convened for launching the public awareness campaign.

Hamid Khan, a Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf leader, said he was not sure if his party would support the referendum.