LAHORE, April 17: The Supreme Court Bar Association on Wednesday filed a direct petition against the Referendum Order of April 9 in the Supreme Court at Islamabad.

The copies of the petition were distributed at a press conference held by SCBA President Hamid Khan at the SC registry in Lahore. He said the association did not have high expectations but it wanted to play its historic role in opposing a military government.

Replying to questions, the SCBA chief said the lawyers cooperating with the government, including Dr Khalid Ranjah and Pakistan Bar Council member Rana Ijaz Ahmed Khan, did not represent the profession at large.

He opposed the creation of an LHC bench at Faisalabad and said President Pervez Musharraf’s announcement was not only politically-motivated but also unlawful. The establishment of the Multan, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi benches in 1981 was also ‘political’.

When a reporter pointed out that the announcement was a response to the Faisalabad District Bar Association demand, Hamid Khan said that legal position might not have been known to the DBA. Article 198 (3) of the Constitution determines the number of high court benches. However, he was against infighting among lawyers and did not favour the Lahore High Court Bar Association threat to have the Faisalabad lawyers demanding a bench disenrolled as advocates.

He said the national lawyers representatives conference convened by the Pakistan Bar Council in Lahore on April 20 would take many crucial decisions regarding the role of the Bar in the present circumstances. He joined the Lahore High Court Bar Association in paying compliments to Justice Tariq Mehmood of the Balochistan High Court over the issue of referendum.

Among the questions raised by the SCBA petition before the Supreme Court are: Whether a referendum can be held within the parameters of the Constitution to elect the President of Pakistan for a term of office? Whether any constitutional functionary can resort to referendum for obtaining a vote of confidence from the people after the expiry of Article 96-A of the Constitution. And whether the Referendum Order is violative of the Supreme Court judgment in the Zafar Ali Shah case.

The petition would be taken up by a nine-member SC bench constituted to hear Jamaat-i-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s petition against referendum on April 22.