ISLAMABAD, May 24: The Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association on Monday announced plans to hold a symbolic trial for the alleged subversion of the 1973 Constitution to replicate the famous 17th century trial of Gen Cromwell in Britain.

"It would be a symbolic trial of conscience," PBC vice- chairman Qazi Mohammad Anwar told a news conference he addressed with SCBA president Tariq Mehmood at the PBC office in Islamabad.

He said a meeting of an action committee of the Bar leaders on Sunday considered the matter of trying those guilty of subverting the Constitution and constituted a sub-committee to propose modalities of the trial. The proposals would be submitted to the action committee's next meeting in Quetta on June 18.

Both leaders of the Bar said the action committee had decided to continue the lawyers' struggle for the restoration of the 1973 Constitution, deletion of 17th constitutional amendment, independence of judiciary, for rule of law and provincial autonomy.

Gen Cromwell had seized power by taking advantage of a tussle between the English parliament and the king as well as between judiciary and parliament in the 17th century. When monarchy was restored later, his body was exhumed and a grand jury convicted his skeleton.

Asked who would be tried for subverting the 1973 Constitution, Qazi Anwar simply said the action committee would decide about the personalities after finalizing modalities.

One of a number of resolutions adopted by it, the action committee opposed a proposal of the Lahore High Court to amend its rules to empower itself to enrol advocates and to initiate disciplinary proceedings against them.

It said any such attempt would be against the law and autonomy of the Bar councils under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act 1973 and threatened a protest campaign by lawyers throughout the country if the proposal was not withdrawn.

The committee expressed its concern on delay in filling vacancies of judges of the Supreme Court and said it amounted to a violation of the verdict of the apex court's own judgment in the well-known Judges' case. It called upon the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take necessary steps to ensure filling of the vacancies without further delay.

The committee endorsed a May 22 resolution of a joint meeting of members of the PBC executive rules committee and representatives of provincial bar councils and asked the advocate general of Punjab province to ensure that the Punjab Bar Council election were held in October or November on the completion of the council's five-year term.

The committee condemned the deportation of PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, calling it a clear violation of Supreme Court verdict, and urged the government to show respect to basic rights of citizens that guaranteed the freedom of movement.

It also condemned the military operation in the South Waziristan tribal agency against alleged militants and called upon the government to desist from doing such actions against its own citizens just to please the US government.

The committee also condemned alleged atrocities being committed on the people of Iraq and Palestine by the US and Israeli forces and called upon the UN and other international bodies to take practical steps for an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and to ensure the revival of sovereignty of the Iraqi people.