KARACHI, Oct 11: Pakistan Bar Council Vice-Chairman Rasheed A. Razvi urged lawyers across the country on Monday to observe Oct 12 as a 'black day' to denounce the military take over in 1999 and to protest against the introduction of a bill to enable President Pervez Musharraf to continue to hold the office of army chief.

In a press statement, he said the decision to observe a protest day on Tuesday was taken by a meeting of lawyers' representatives held in Lahore on Oct 2. The statement condemned the "President to hold another office bill" as a measure amounting to "destruction of the 1973 Constitution".

"In my considered view," the PBC vice-chief said, "the bill is another attempt to deface the constitution in the same manner as done by previous military rulers".

The present regime had admitted that the president could not hold two offices and the bill had been introduced to overcome 'this constitutional bar'. However, it was a settled law that the constitution being the supreme law could not be amended by a sub-constitutional legislation, he added.

The new law, Advocate Razvi said, was applicable only to the present holder of the president's office. Enactment of laws for the convenience of one individual had weakened the country's legal system and all other institutions, he added.